Posted on 03/03/2019 8:28:50 AM PST by SamAdams76
This is a monthly posting of Twitter follower growth for the past month for 2020 presidential candidates.
This is very unscientific but I feel that Twitter growth in followers can be a strong indicator of candidate "popularity" and we certainly saw that in 2016, when it was Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and the eventual winner Donald Trump who month after month saw the highest growth in followers. My 2016 tracking showed "front-runners" like Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio with comparatively slower Twitter follower growth months before they eventually dropped out of the race. So Twitter follower growth can certainly be a leading indicator of whether a candidacy is going flat or surging.
I am currently tracking 52 candidates - both announced as well as any notable individuals showing interest - up from 43 last month. Only the Top 20 in follower growth (over the past month) make the cut for this posting, but there are now 32 other candidates "bubbling under."
I also added a column that shows percentage growth of followers. I don't personally like this metric because it skews in favor of candidates who have comparatively few followers (see Andrew Yang as an example here) and disfavors candidates who have already built millions of followers, who are just not going to be able to double their supporters in one month but show massive growth nonetheless. But many have requested it so here it is.
This was a very active month with a lot of candidates (mostly on the Democrat side) formally entering the race or showing strong interest. This looks to be easily a much larger field than the one the Republicans fielded in the 2016 campaign - and contrary to all expectations, newcomer Donald Trump ended up trouncing them all.
Will there be a "Donald Trump" emerging on the Democrat (or Independent side)? I don't see one emerging currently. Last month, there was a lot of scuttlebutt about Starbucks co-founder Howard Schultz but that seems to have died down.
President Trump once again has gained nearly a million followers since 30 days ago - pretty impressive. However, Bernie Sanders is coming on strong with over 100,000 new followers since he announced he was in once again. You also see some momentum for other candidates such as "Groping" Joe Biden and "Pocahontas" Liz Warren but the biggest surprise for me is Amy Klobucher who is number 3 in my chart this month, netting nearly 70,000 new followers during February.
Well below is the full listing of the Top 20 for this month. Just a passing mention of who is at the bottom of my survey (actually losing followers over the past month), John Kasich and Mark Cuban, those two lost thousands of followers last month. Neither look likely to be running but they are on the list of people I am tracking until they definitely say they are out.
It would seem like that Howard Schultz needs to improve his Twitter numbers. Should we introduce him to some Russians, and arrange for a collusion effort to get more Twitter followers?
thanks
The Rat bastard candidates roughly 26-27 million - 47% of Trump.
Not even half!
How does Spartacus have over four million followers? I didn’t think four million people who knew how to read English would listen to him. :)
Buttgig is growing fast.
For most of them a 6% increase in basically nothing, is still nothing, while a 1.4% increase in 57 billion is SOMETHING.
You’re work is much appreciated. Thank You.
Maybe he’s paying the Russians to follow him.
Kamel Harris nickname should be “the ignorant slut.”
fascinating!
(you’ll have to add John Hickenlooper next time you do this as he’s announced he’ll announce this coming week.)
“How does Spartacus have over four million followers? I didn’t think four million people who knew how to read English would listen to him.”
that’s a good point ... wouldn’t surprise me that paid trolls are at work for that one ...
Add up all the March 2019 numbers ( excepting Trump’s) and you still have less than half of what Trump has!
Hickenlooper is on my list. He gained 1,303 followers last month, not nearly enough to make the Top 20. We’ll see if he climbs into the Top 20 for my April update after his March 7 announcement.
I think it’s been demonstrated there are a LOT of fake Tweater followers (via “bots”)
True, but Twitter periodically identifies and purges “fake followers”. During my Twitter tracking, I’ve seen it for myself.
Here’s an interesting quote from Jack Dorsey from Recode:
“But the people who build Twitter are biased, Dorsey admitted in an interview last month, saying out loud what everyone already knew: Twitter, like most tech companies in Silicon Valley, has a lot more left-leaning employees than right-leaners.”
I would have thought Beta would have had much more, given the profile he had when he was running against Ted Cruz.
Maybe he prefers SnapChat and InstaSpam?
True. I read a lot of books on high-tech startups. Typically they are founded and staffed by leftists. I always found that a curiosity because high tech companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, etc., are examples of pure capitalism at work. You would expect a lot of Reaganites and readers of Ayn Rand among them.
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