Do you shop at Whole Foods? How about the Cracker Barrel? Does it matter?

Yes, it does.

It turns out food stores can be determining factor in election results.

In 2008, candidate Barack Obama carried 81 percent of counties with a Whole Foods and just 36 percent of counties with a Cracker Barrel —a record 45-point gap

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is a country southern themed restaurant and gift store. Whole Foods is an organic food store. You can probably guess the demographic breakdown here. Liberals most likely shop at Whole Foods… conservatives at the Cracker Barrel.

In the 2010 midterm elections, the culinary divide was even more apparent: Eighty-two percent of congressional districts that flipped from Democratic to Republican were home to a Cracker Barrel, and just 20 percent of these districts had a Whole Foods.

Can you think of any other correlation between food and politics?