Bakery owners Bobby and Janice Jucker, have used their cookies to poll customers on political candidates for nearly 15 years. To cast a vote, customers buy cookies decorated with the face of their preferred candidate, or the face of the bakery’s mascot, Gingy. Participants in the poll are allowed to eat their vote after it’s cast and vote multiple times.
At the end of each week, the bakery posts updated numbers of Facebook.
Across all four Three Brothers Bakery locations, Talarico leads with 1,329 votes, followed by Paxton with 123 votes and Gingy with 95 votes as of Sept. 10.
“I will say, I need to go back and do a little more research, but Gingy seems to be doing better than he normally does,” Janice Jucker said.
At the bakery’s Washington Avenue location, Gingy is beating Paxton by three cookies.
The cookie poll has been a tradition at Three Brothers Bakery since the 2012 presidential election. In 2022, the bakery expanded to local elections, holding a cookie poll for the race for governor between Republican incumbent Greg Abbott and Democrat Beto O’Rourke. This is their first poll in a U.S. Senate race.
“Normally, we probably would have done the governor’s race,” Janice Jucker said. “But, this Senate race is just so interesting and people seem more excited about the Senate race than the governor race.”
As for which candidate the bakery supports, it’s been the same since 2012.
“Our candidate is Gingy,” Janice Jucker said “We want Gingy to win. He never does.”