With a month to go before election day, America’s stomachs have voted early. Family Circle magazine released the results of its 2016 Presidential Cookie Poll, and the winner was Bill Clinton’s chocolate chip oatmeal recipe.
Every general election year since 1992 — the first time Bill Clinton ran for president — Family Circle has solicited cookie recipes from the spouses of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.
This year the poll was conducted on the magazine’s Facebook page. Readers were asked to try the recipes out at home and “like” or “love” their favorite. Clinton’s cookie was pitted against Melania Trump’s star-shaped sugar cookie.
According to a statement from Family Circle, the Clintons’ recipe received 1,623 likes and hearts on Facebook while Trump’s cookie received 535. The Clintons stayed ahead in the poll by a margin that any politician would dream of having, leading by about a 3:1 ratio during the entirety of the six-week voting period.
The magazine was quick to point out that its cookie poll has correctly predicted the winner of the general election in five of the last six elections. In 2008, Cindy McCain’s oatmeal butterscotch cookies fared better than her husband’s presidential ambitions, beating Michelle Obama’s shortbread recipe. In 2012, Obama took a cue from the Clintons and returned to the contest with a chocolate chip cookie recipe of her own.
Bill Clinton’s recipe was the same one that earned this year’s Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton the crown in 1992 and 1996.
The results of the Family Circle poll mirrored those of a random taste test CNN conducted in front of the White House in August.
