Posted on 09/30/2018 3:54:48 PM PDT by SamAdams76
This is a monthly posting of Twitter follower growth for the past month for 2020 presidential candidates.
For those who are new to this, what I do here is take a snapshot of Twitter followers at end of each month for people who have either formally announced or notable people who show interest in running for president in the 2020 cycle. Then I stack rank by what the growth is month-over-month in Twitter followers.
This is very unscientific of course but I feel that Twitter growth in followers is a very strong indicator of candidate "velocity" 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 rather tepid Twitter follower growth months before they eventually dropped out of the race.
So I think this "unscientific" survey has some merit.
Lot has happened since last month's update. For one, the field has grown to the point where I have limited my main list to the "Top 20" only so that we can eliminate the really "out there" fringe candidates.
For now, I am including all public figures who are on record of showing interest in running. This is why you see celebrities like LeBron James, Roseanne Barr and some singer named Akon. I struggled over whether to include them or not but in the end, I figured they are citizens who have the right to run for president as anybody else. And as we saw with Donald Trump, you just can't laugh off celebrities or private citizens who want to run.
Just missing the list is Kamala Harris. Over the past month, she started a new Twitter handle @KamalaHarris20 which has garnered only 758 followers over the past few days. Her @KamalaHarris handle, which had 1.6m followers last month, appears to be no more. So maybe we'll see her hit the Top 20 next month.
Dropped from my tracking this month were the following fringe candidates who no longer show up in my primary source, the Wikipedia article titles "United States presidential election, 2020":
Jack Fellure
Geoffrey Fieger
Harry Braun
Jonathon Sharkey
Lawrence Jackson
Zoltan Istvan
Roque De La Fuente
Jesse Ventura
Marianne Williamson
I'll add them back to my tracking should circumstances dictate but I think it's safe to say we've heard the last of them. By the way, I'm still tracking Vermin Supreme but he's still stuck at just 85 followers so he's at bottom of my list.
New to my tracking this month are three people who have recently shown interest in running:
Oscar De La Hoya (yes, the boxer)
Tulsi Gabbard (Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii)
"Pocahontas" Elizabeth Warren
I'll have growth numbers for them in my November update and we'll see if any of them make my Top 20.
It was interesting to see Jeff Flake and "Porn Lawyer" Michael Avennati score so high in my survey. I'm thinking they are getting a lot of "liberal love" over the Kavanaugh brouhaha as neither of them have a chance for the presidency in my opinion.
Anyway, here is the list below for October. I will add some additional commentary throughout the month.
Some told me they didn't get a ping last month so I hope I did it right this time. Otherwise, I hope somebody can tell me what I'm doing wrong!
Trying that ping list again
So what happened to “Spartacus Booker?
He used 17 interminable minutes at the Kav hearings to launch his presidential ambitions......17 minutes of “I’m the Greatest.”
I don’t see Pocahontus or Kamala Harris (if that’s her name) on the list.
I’m using that for next month’s update...”Spartacus” Cory Booker!
OK.
As for Kamala Harris, she just missed my survey. She gained 758 followers on @KamalaHarris20. Not enough to make my Top 20.
Got it. Interesting - it’s actually very good to monitor. Thanks!
But Flake just said he’s a conservative..
I’m on instagram. You wouldn’t believe the posts on there from foreigners who absolutely love him.
Up until last week there were horrible posts on every Trump thread. All of a sudden the pack of regular haters went silent. His threads are full of love and good wishes now.
Curiouser and curiouser...
In other words, the guy scares the hell out of me.
Twitter will delete any unflattering images of viable Democrat candidates for "attempting to influence an election."
The same charge that got James Woods banned.
No sooner will the mid-terms be done then attention will turn to the 2020 presidential election.
Who’s Behaving Like A 2020 Presidential Candidate
The focus is on mid-terms right now but I think we see a lot of presidential activity starting in January.
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