Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:50 pm
Hillary Clinton came in number one of the top five most retweeted candidate tweets of the year, with Bernie Sanders second. Third up to bat is Jeb Bush with a pot joke, followed by Donald Trump with a tweet full of inaccuracies and hyperbolic nonsense, and fifth is Ted Cruz with his announcement that he’s running for president.
Clinton was also the only candidate in the “Top US Politics/Government Tweets of the Year”.
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From 2015 Twitter data curated by Evan McMorris-Santoro at BuzzFeed , we have former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-Everywhere) much anticipated announcement that she is indeed running for president as the number one most retweeted tweet of any 2016 presidential candidate.
I'm running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion. -H https://t.co/w8Hoe1pbtC
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 12, 2015
Second is 2016 Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with his (accurate) observation of all that was missing from the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland:
It's over. Not one word about economic inequality, climate change, Citizens United or student debt. That's why the Rs are so out of touch.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 7, 2015
Jeb Bush’s (R-FLA) pot joke from the second debate during which he admitted that 40 years ago, he had smoked pot and his mom wasn’t happy that he just admitted this on national TV:
Sorry Mom
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 17, 2015
The fourth is a Donald Trump (R-nowhere, never served in any official office before, a fact made obvious each time he opens his mouth to speak) tweet about the first Democratic debate in which he fear mongers about “illegal immigrants” being given Obamacare and free college while they ignored veterans (not true, but that goes without saying at this point, as Democrats did address veterans and “illegal immigrants” are sometimes allowed to use the marketplace to purchase insurance but only lawfully present immigrants have access to cost assistance,):
Notice that illegal immigrants will be given ObamaCare and free college tuition but nothing has been mentioned about our VETERANS #DemDebate
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2015
Last up is Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) presidential run announcement:
I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support! pic.twitter.com/0UTqaIoytP
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 23, 2015
Clinton is the only candidate who made the top 27 “Top US Politics/Government Tweets of the Year” based on RTs, as BuzzFeed noted, “Clinton had that list’s 8th, 15th, 25th and 26th most retweeted tweet.”
It’s easy to buy followers on Twitter, but not as easy to game Twitter as other platforms. Retweets are indicative of an idea or thought resonating with the public. This is very good news for Hillary Clinton and not such great news for Republicans. Poor Jeb Bush had a moment of great popularity, unfortunately it came at the expense of his family’s preferred image as straight-laced conservatives (image is not reality in this case).
The idea that Democrats wouldn’t be as fired up without President Obama on the ballot is proving to be false. Former Sec. of State Clinton is flexing her muscles on social media and leaving the Republican presidential candidates who weren’t reality television stars in the dust.
If Twitter enthusiasm is any indication, Democrats are fired up and ready to go for 2016.
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