The “progressive” Texas baker and “Food Network” star faces intense backlash, hateful comments and even a murder over cookies she sold with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's face on them. I'm being threatened.
Ahead of Tuesday's vice presidential debate between Walz and Sen. J.D. Vance, Haley Popp launched a blue frosted sugar cookie featuring a portrait of the Democratic vice presidential candidate at her Hive Bakery.
“Only a few dozen left! Order online or come visit us!! Who's ready for tonight's VP beat?!” says the baker wrote on Facebook Along with smiling waltz cookies.
Eight hours after sharing the post, Pop revealed that the bakery was receiving harassing messages and phone calls because of her “liberal cookies.”
“Here's the thing: If you don't want to buy cake from me just because I serve Tim Waltz cookies, I don't care,” Pop wrote. “I don't care about your opinion of me at all, and I don't think twice about unsolicited advice about how I should run my business. Do you hate me? Don't come here. You don't like when I post something political? Unfollow me. You're irrelevant.”
“We've built a business with grit, tenacity, authenticity and an authentic voice. We stand for something and no one will take that away from us.” she added. “Save harassment for others. Given hateful rhetoric like this, we never wanted you to come to our store in the first place.
The bakery shared screenshots of the comments it has received, which range from calling Popp “disgusting” to threatening his life.
Popp, who describes herself as a “progressive female business owner,” said she has reported harassment to the Flower Mound Police Department in the past and that the harassment “continues.”
Popp also claimed she was criticized when she made baked goods to celebrate Pride Week in June.
“The worst thing ever written was written during Pride Week when we were championing the LGBTQ+ community and running Pride Cookies throughout June,” she said on Instagram . “One man told me that all of us gay people wished the bakery we were in burned down.”
“I would never post anything fueled by hate. I literally just post pictures of cookies and I get death threats when I do that,” Popp said. Ta. Dallas Morning News.
The report said most of the hateful comments came from members of the Facebook group Flower Mound Cares.
The self-taught baker, who launched her own business in 2018, appeared on 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 Walz cookies sold out, Hive Bakery created a “Harris/Walz” cookie that displayed the running mates side by side in front of an American flag backdrop surrounded by blue frosting.
Popp initially made six dozen, but she said she had trouble keeping up with orders.
Several Kamala Harris cookies have been made this year, featuring the 59-year-old vice president in various poses.
Other cookies feature female singers such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter and Chapel Lawn posing with cats.
While Pop created polarizing baked goods to show support for the Democratic Party, other bakeries across the country were using political cookies in mock elections.
Cincinnati-based Busken Bakery sells cookies featuring caricatures of Harris and former President Donald Trump as well as a generic yellow smiley face, with votes based on how many each sweet treat is sold. were tallied.
As of Oct. 1, Mr. Trump leads the “boring” poll with more than 15,000 votes, followed by Ms. Harris with nearly 5,000 votes, followed by the yellow smiley face with 826 votes.
“Cookie polls” have accurately predicted the outcome of every election except one since 1984.
In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump leads Ms. Harris in another “Dough Maxie” election held at Rochell's Bakery in Hatboro.
The small-town bakery has sold 17,860 “Trump 2024” cookies featuring red and white sprinkles, but the blue “Harris 2024” cookies have only been sold 1,222 times in 2016. First of all, October.
