Donald Trump is winning this Hatboro bakery’s presidential cookie poll

In 2008, when Kathleen Lochel pitched the idea of baking presidential election cookies, it was just a gimmick.

The Hatboro bakery she runs with her husband, Rob, is known for its decorative Phillies, Eagles, and Halloween cookies and cupcakes. The presidential variety — sugar cookies with red and blue sprinkles and candidates' names — seemed like a fun way to pump up sales.

And for the first few presidential cycles at Lochel's Bakery , it was. They sold a few hundred cookies every election season — a tasty, nonscientific poll among regulars and customers in the know where buying a candidates' cookie represents a vote.

Then, in 2020, the poll exploded. Eric Trump, campaigning for his father, paid a visit. And though, at the bakery, the Lochels are adamantly apolitical, their cookies have become something of a calling card for Trump supporters all over the country ever since.

"It just went crazy," Lochel said.

When Eric Trump bought a red-and-white sprinkled Lochel's cookie with his dad's name on it, the hot lights of the presidential election shone squarely on the storefront bakery with a staff of 25. In the weeks before the 2020 election, lines quickly stretched out the door. Reporters from all over the world camped outside.

"There were reporters here from Germany, China, and Italy," Lochel said. "I had to get a translator."

Orders poured in from across the country. And though President Joe Biden carried Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes, Trump ran up the margins in the cookie rally. Lochel's sold nearly 32,000 Trump cookies and 5,750 for Biden.

And this year, in a contentious election, the cookie sales are through the roof. The Lochel's staff has stapled a U.S. map in the back room of the bakery where they keep a tally of the cookie orders they've received from all 50 states. Trump is winning the cookies by a landslide. More than 19,000 cookies have already been sold. Almost 18,000 of them have been for Trump.

"All these red checks, that's one order," said Lochel, "The Trump name — regardless of who you like and don't like, or our personal feelings — is drawing the attention."

As heated as the political landscape outside becomes, it's been civil at the bakery.

Given the lop-sided numbers, Lochel says she has gotten some flak for people saying she's pushing for Trump.

"This is Trump nation," Maureen Clinton, 43, said proudly. She had driven from Fox Chase Friday for Trump cookies, and stood near the front of a line of Trump supporters that stretched out the bakery door.

But Lochel doesn't play favorites. Her red and blue window display bears cardboard cutouts of both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

"I get a lot of heat for that," Lochel said, of the lopsided sales. "People think that it's me pushing, pushing, pushing red, but I can't prevent what people are buying."

The way Kathleen Lochel sees it, her bakery is an ordinary American business. Opened in 1942 in South Philly by her husband's grandfather and great-uncle, who were bakers and cake decorators in the Navy, the bakery's political cookie sales have helped the Lochels keep it running for a fourth generation to someday takeover, pulling through the hard times of a pandemic and the increased costs of eggs and butter. After all, she said, the customers who come for cookies are also buying pound cakes and peach loaves. It's even leading to seasonal jobs at the bakery.

"We just hired some temporary workers to help us through this cookie fiasco," said Kathleen Lochel, with a laugh. "If people are happy to buy the cookies, they're supporting a small business."

Lochel's, in a town of just 8,200, depends on outsiders for business. Once just a popular destination for Montco residents seeking a specialty sweet, it's now become a destination for Trump supporters to see and be seen.

It was Stephanie and Tim Cutting's second trip to the bakery for Trump cookies. The North Jersey couple stopped at Lochel's Friday on their way to a weekend trip to Philly.

"Everything is so yucky in the world right now," said Stephanie Cutting. "Why wouldn't you want to have a little fun with a cookie?"

Still, as the sole Harris supporter in line pointed out, the cookie poll is not reflective of the heavily-blue county as a whole. Or even Hatboro, which Biden won by 18 percent in 2020.

"I tell everybody, this is not scientific," Lochel said. "This is a cookie with someone's name on it."

The cookie sales hasn't given Kathleen Lochel much insight into national policy or the issues that divide America. It's mostly given her a glimpse of how tribalistic American politics has become, where even a cookie can be a way to show your stripes.

"I can't explain it," she said. "They're just so happy to leave with these cookies."