Posted on 11/30/2015 4:22:14 PM PST by SamAdams76
Every 10 days, I will seek to update the amount of followers being gained by presidential candidates. So three times a month this update will come out. Also, each new month, I will reset the Month To Date stats.
Looking at the trends over the past 10 days, Ted Cruz is a major mover, now in second place among the Republicans in followers gained. Carson has slipped from second to fourth place, which seems to mirror the recent polls showing that people are losing interest in him.
This is my first report (I've been doing these since July) in which Ben Carson was not either number 1 or number 2 in Twitter follower growth. Donald Trump has almost always been number one, being number 2 to Carson only once. In this update, Trump becomes the first presidential candidate to go over 5,000,000 total followers.
I have Diamond and Silk in there (Trump Cheerleaders) as sort of a "Mendoza Line." My theory is that if you are a presidential candidate and cheerleaders for another candidate are surpassing you in follower growth, it might be time to consider getting out of the race as it's clearly not going to happen for you this go around. Here are the candidates who could not even beat Diamond and Silk:
Mitt Romney is in there only because people continue to talk about him coming in as the "savior" should Jebbie Bush have to fold up his tent. At this stage in the game, I don't see how Romney can possibly stage a run so this might be the last time you see him in these rankings.
Sarah Palin - I like her so she stays in.
On the Democrat side, it's a snorefest. Shrillary is obviously looking to just run out the clock and put down a knee. A very cankled and thankled knee. Has anybody even seen her on the campaign trail? I think she has been sleeping all this time. Wouldn't it be funny if Bernie Sanders was to clean her clock in the primaries the same way that community organizer from Chicago did eight years ago.
So we head into December with Donald Trump still way out in front and only Ted Cruz making a serious move on him. Things should start getting interesting.
Name | Twitter Handle | 11/1/2015 | 11/30/2015 | Gain November MTD | Gain Last 10 Days |
Donald Trump | @realDonaldTrump | 4,708,207 | 5,039,291 | 331,084 | 84,874 |
Ted Cruz | @tedcruz | 561,105 | 613,466 | 52,361 | 12,137 |
Marco Rubio | @marcorubio | 934,370 | 991,305 | 56,935 | 10,709 |
Ben Carson | @RealBenCarson | 851,335 | 1,038,517 | 187,182 | 9,583 |
Tippy Toes | @JebBush | 356,089 | 381,430 | 25,341 | 6,204 |
Rand Paul | @RandPaul | 706,795 | 725,844 | 19,049 | 4,155 |
Carly Fiorina | @CarlyFiorina | 608,185 | 629,452 | 21,267 | 3,854 |
George Pataki | @GovernorPataki | 59,883 | 81,644 | 21,761 | 3,488 |
Diamond and Silk | @DiamondandSilk | 9,421 | 13,243 | 3,822 | 1,344 |
Chris Christie | @ChrisChristie | 61,331 | 69,003 | 7,672 | 1,336 |
Mike Huckabee | @GovMikeHuckabee | 420,404 | 427,027 | 6,623 | 1,315 |
Sarah Palin | @SarahPalinUSA | 1,186,305 | 1,191,766 | 5,461 | 865 |
John Kasich | @JohnKasich | 141,986 | 145,647 | 3,661 | 703 |
Mitt Romney | @MittRomney | 1,682,710 | 1,687,562 | 4,852 | 689 |
Rick Santorum | @RickSantorum | 246,754 | 248,140 | 1,386 | 424 |
Linda Graham | @LindseyGrahamSC | 29,553 | 31,168 | 1,615 | 267 |
Jim Gilmore | @gov_gilmore | 2,034 | 2,325 | 291 | 73 |
Name | Twitter Handle | 11/1/2015 | 11/30/2015 | Gain November MTD | Gain Last 10 Days |
Shrillary Clinton | @HillaryClinton | 4,597,695 | 4,788,286 | 190,591 | 51,868 |
Bernie Sanders | @BernieSanders | 796,211 | 933,315 | 137,104 | 34,256 |
Martin O'Malley | @MartinOMalley | 99,035 | 110,358 | 11,323 | 1,048 |
95% of the people I know..don’t Twitter
If you want to reach the young voters, you need a good social media strategy. Republicans seem to be getting it this year, especially Trump.
Don’t assume a Twitter follow means support. Because of my job I have always followed many people I don’t agree with. Sometimes it is good to leave the echo chamber and listen to a few strange voices. It’s good to know the thinking of a wide variety of people.
I despised Twitter at first. I’ve really grown to love it for politics and breaking news.
Twitter is what little old ladies and birds do.
Good policy.
Good point but whatever the reason, generally one would only be following candidates that were doing well. I can see a lot of non-Trump supporters following him to see what outrageous thing he says next. But if you are an opponent of say Jebbie Bush or John Kasich - why bother. Those guys aren’t going anywhere.
Thank you, that makes the data more useful!
Republican candidates mastering social media to attract younger voters is fine and sensible. That doesn’t mean I have to get a Twitter account. I prefer more old-fashioned approaches to decision making — thoughtful study of comprehensive articles, in-depth comparisons of candidates on the issues, good political analysis by people I respect.
A 140 character “tweet” fails across the board. Luckily my attention span is still long enough to read and digest long articles. Maybe one day soon I’ll need a drool cup and catheter, in which case I may join the legions of twits.
Me too, spent years making fun of it until all my techie pals knew more stuff than I did. Twitter can be a great tool, not unlike watching new threads on FR to take the pulse of what’s going on.
That said, Trump gained 7 times the followers Cruz did. Most people follow because they don’t want to miss anything that a person has to say.
That’s their percentage share of the total followers gained by all?
Is it convenient for you to do the percentage change in each candidates followers?
(Or is that in there and I’m missing it?)
Thanks for what you’ve done!
This has turned out to be even more informative than I thought.
Percentages just counting Republican Candidates
But, I just don't many people that Twitter...
And I'm not going to do it....
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