Social Media Enthusiasm Gap Gives Republican Candidates A Landslide Edge Over Democrats

Probably the single most boring twitterer I follow-- not counting John Shimkus, who basically never takes to The Twitter except to regurgitate official GOP talking points and Bible passages which supposedly assuage his conscience over having let Mark Foley have sexual access to the underage congressional pages back before he was discovered and forced to resign from Congress-- is Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Damn, for someone who knows how to brutalize progressive candidates, and who aspires to caucus leadership, Wasserman Schultz's tweets are devoid of passion and meaning. They sound like someone told her it's a "must," so she does it, but even lamer than her best bud Ileana Ros Lehtinen. And this is going to be the leadership of the Democratic Party, the party progressives have hooked their wagon up to. Are we ever doomed!

Last week our friends at HeadCount released a worrying report on how the GOP is kicking the asses of Democrats in the social media world. "Republicans," they write, "have about four times as many Facebook Fans as their Democratic counterparts, and five times as many Twitter followers. It’s a social media landslide. The disparity was so shocking, we put together this report." In fact, they find Republican incumbents and challengers for the Senate have about four times as many Facebook fans as their Democratic counterparts, and five times as many Twitter followers.

Just two years after Barack Obama made Facebook and social media a staple of his campaign for the presidency, Republicans have far surpassed their Democratic rivals in popularity on Facebook and Twitter. As of September 21, 2010, Republican candidates for the Senate have amassed 1.43 million fans on Facebook, compared to just under 300,000 for Democrats. The differential on Twitter is even more striking, where Republican senatorial candidates collectively have close to 520,000 followers, and Democrats are just below 90,000.

...In 22 out of 37 Senatorial races, the Republican candidate has a larger social media presence than his or her Democratic opponent across both Facebook and Twitter. The Democrat has a larger presence in nine races, and in six races the lead is split.

Incumbents enjoy a larger social media presence in most races. Among the 22 races where an incumbent is seeking re-election, the challenger has more fans and followers in only two-- Sharron Angle (R) is leading Harry Reid (D) in Nevada and John Boozman (R) is leading Blanche Lincoln (D) in Arkansas.

Candidates associated with the Tea Party movement are among the most popular in social media, most notably South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint. Hailed as one of the most new media savvy elected officials, he has more Twitter followers than any incumbent and more Facebook fans than any incumbent other than McCain. Across both parties, candidates in California and Florida have strong social media followings. In Florida Kendrick Meek has the third largest social media following of any Democrat nationwide, but he also ranks third in his own state, trailing Republican Marco Rubio and Independent Charlie Crist.

Below is a list of all Democratic and Republican candidates, listed in order of their total Facebook fans and Twitter followers.





Barack Obama’s surging presence on Facebook during the 2008 campaign was widely hailed as an early sign that a grass-roots movement was building around him. He remains one of the most popular figures in all of social media, with 13.6 million fans on Facebook and 5.5 million followers on Twitter. Beyond Obama however, it is mostly conservative voices and specifically ones operating outside of the political establishment that boast the strongest foothold in social media. The Tea Party, for instance, has more fans on Facebook than the Democratic and Republican parties combined. Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul-- considered two of the de facto leaders of the Tea Party movement-- boast some of the largest followings on Facebook and (in Palin's case) Twitter in the entire political arena. Then again, “The Coffee Party,” a 501(c)4 organization created in responseParty largely via social media, also claims more Facebook fans than either of the established political parties.

You can certainly see from this chart why Republicans and their allies-- both the dedicated ones and the useful idiots-- were so terribly upset about Stephen Colbert getting so much attention last week.

My own experience is that the Republican incumbents use Twitter very badly, mostly as an orchestrated Amen Choir for their dull-witted followers. Rarely does one find even a modicum of wit or useful information. In fact, few politicians from either party make good use of Twitter. A few nights ago Rachel Maddow showed how poor is the grasp of the Republican Party-- even at the highest levels-- of all things technological... like a .pdf