A “progressive” Texas baker and Food Network star has received harsh backlash, hateful comments and death threats over cookies she was selling bearing the face of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Haley Popp launched the blue-frosted sugar cookies that featured the Democratic vice presidential candidate’s likeness at her Hive Bakery ahead of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Walz and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).
“We only have a few dozen! Order online or come see us!! Who’s ready for the VP beats tonight?!,” the bakery wrote on Facebook alongside the cookie with a smiling Walz.
Eight hours after sharing the post, Popp revealed that the bakery had received hateful messages and phone calls because of her “liberal cookies.”
“Here’s the thing. I don’t give a f–k if you don’t want to buy a cake from me because I put out Tim Walz cookies,” Popp wrote. “I couldn’t care less what your opinion of me is, nor do I think twice about your unsolicited advice on how I should run my business. You don’t like me? Don’t come here. You don’t like that I post political s–t? Unfollow. You are irrelevant.”
“We’ve built a business with grit, tenacity, authenticity and one that has a real voice. We stand for something. No one will ever take that from us,” she added. “Save your harassment for someone else. With such hateful rhetoric, we never wanted you in our shop to begin with.”
The bakery shared screenshots of the comments it had received, which ranged from calling Popp “disgusting” to threatening her life.
Popp, who describes herself as a “progressive, female business owner,” says she has reported the harassment to the Flower Mound Police Department in the past, but it “persists.”
Popp claimed she also came under fire when she made baked goods to celebrate Pride week in June.
“The worst thing that’s been written was during Pride week when we defended the LGBTQ+ community and ran Pride cookies all June long,” she said on Instagram. “A man told me he hopes the bakery burns down with all of us queers inside.”
“I’m never posting anything fueled by hatred. I literally just post photos of cookies, and that will get me a death threat,” Popp told the Dallas Morning News.
A majority of the hateful comments came from members of the Facebook group Flower Mound Cares, according to the outlet.
The self-taught baker, who created her business in 2018, appeared on the Food Network’s “Halloween Wars” in 2019.
She also won the network’s “Cakealikes: Flavor Flav” and “Food Network Canada: The Big Bake” competitions.
After the Walz cookies sold out, Hive Bakery created Harris/Walz cookies that showcased the running mates side by side in front of an American flag backdrop surrounded by blue frosting.
Popp initially created 6 dozen but then had trouble keeping up with orders, she says.
Several iterations of Kamala Harris cookies have been made this year, featuring the 59-year-old vice president in different poses.
Other cookies have featured the likes of female singers including Taylor Swift posing with her cat, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.
While Popp creates the polarizing baked goods to show her support for the Democratic ticket, other bakeries around the country have used political cookies for a mock election.
Cincinnati-based Busken Bakery sold cookies featuring caricatures of Harris, former President Donald Trump and a generic yellow smiley face and tallied up the votes based on how many of each sweet treat was sold.
Trump leads the “crumby” polling with over 15,000 votes followed by Harris with nearly 5,000 and the yellow smiley face trailing behind with 826, as of Oct. 1.
The “cookie poll” has accurately predicted every election outcome but one since 1984.
In swing state Pennsylvania, Trump leads Harris in a separate “dough-macracy” election at Lochel’s Bakery in Hatboro.
The small-town bakery has sold 17,860 “Trump 2024” cookies featuring red and white sprinkles, while the blue “Harris 2024” cookie has been sold only 1,222 times as of October 1.
