Teenie Beanies are back - and this time, they have political backing.

The Teenie Beanie Baby American Trio Collection debuted Wednesday at McDonald’s. The trio includes Teenie Beanies Lefty the Donkey, Righty the Elephant and Libearty the Bear.

“(We market them) to commemorate national Election Day and to celebrate the American democratic process,” said Ted Lezotte, a board member of Out State Michigan McDonald’s.

McDonald’s first offered Teenie Beanie Babies in Happy Meals in 1997, which became the best-selling Happy Meals of all time. However, this year’s tiny toys are not part of a Happy Meal. They have a suggested price of $2.49 each with the purchase of regularly priced food. The promotion ends Nov. 9, or while supplies last.

Lezotte isn’t sure how the public will react to these Teenie Beanies, but past promotions have stretched the supplies of McDonald’s restaurants, he said.

“As with any hot property, it’s extremely difficult to predict customer demand,” he said. “However, we are expecting a positive response since Teenie Beanie Babies are a collectors item.”

While Libearty the Bear is simply a patriotic toy, Righty the Elephant and Lefty the Donkey have some very important historical significance.

The Democratic National Committee says the donkey was first used by Andrew Jackson in 1828 to symbolize his stubbornness. In 1870, the donkey was used by Harper’s Weekly political cartoonist Thomas Nast as a Democratic symbol.

According to the Republican National Committee, Nast created the elephant as the symbol for the Republican vote, and it later became a symbol for the entire Republican party.

Ty Inc., the creator of Beanie Babies, created Righty the Elephant and Lefty the Donkey in 1996 to commemorate the presidential election. The company made new versions of the duo this year, but the Teenie Beanies are smaller versions of the 1996 elephant and donkey.

Music performance freshman Lindsay Drecoll was not impressed with the new political Beanies.

“They’re for kids,” she said. “I hate Beanie Babies. And music majors are poor.”

But Michael Conti, a music composition and theory graduate student who was with Drecoll, found the animals amusing.

“I wanted one,” Conti said. “But (Drecoll) wouldn’t let me. I do have one: Whiskers the kitty cat. It was for my birthday.”

However, neither of them think the Teenie Beanies are as popular as they have been in the past.

“It’s all a fad,” Conti said. “The only people who care are little kids and old women. Whatever happened to baseball cards?”