Which Presidential Candidates Are As All-American As Apple Pie, Starbucks, And Budweiser?

In an intriguing survey that asked American voters which foods and brands they most closely associated with individual presidential candidates, the results revealed some interesting things about the leading nominees.

For example, voters associated Republican nominee Marco Rubio with BMW, Facebook, and Corona. Those are hip brands, but not all-American, which might hurt Rubio's poll numbers, according to Douglas Schoen, a former pollster for President Bill Clinton.

When given a list of 13 desserts, apple pie was linked to several candidates: Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Hillary Clinton. However, voters apparently felt that Rubio did not evoke the quintessential all-American dessert. Instead, voters were torn between red velvet cake and chocolate chip cookies for Rubio, tied at 15 percent of votes. Nine percent of voters linked Rubio to vanilla ice cream, cheesecake, snickerdoodles, tiramisu, and apple pie.

According to Schoen, that means Rubio might lack the patriotic persona needed to make it to the White House. "This is a not a guy who's associated with traditional American brands," Schoen told the Wall Street Journal.

As for the Democrats, voters seem to have made a clear demographic between Sanders and Clinton as well. Clinton was associated with Starbucks and Stella Artois, while Sanders made people think of Folgers coffee, Holiday Inn, and Budweiser. That might mean trouble for Clinton if she truly wants to connect with the middle class, Schoen said, because "Starbucks is a pretty expensive cup of coffee."