SamAdams76 Monthly Trending of Twitter Follower Growth for 2020 Presidential Candidates - Feb 2019

[SamAdams76]

This is a monthly posting of Twitter follower growth for the past month for 2020 presidential candidates.

Last Month's Post Here.

For those who are new to this, what I do here is take a snapshot of Twitter followers at end of each month for citizens 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.

I am currently tracking 43 individuals for the 2020 Presidential Race but only the Top 20 make the cut for my monthly update.

I dropped several candidates from last month's tracking including Bill Kristol, Jeff Flake and Patrick Deval.

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 Howard Schultz as an example here) and disfavors candidates who have already built millions of followers. But many have requested it so here it is.

President Trump has gained over a million followers since 30 days ago - pretty impressive. However, "Pocahontas" Elizabeth Warren is coming on strong with over 115,000 new followers. You also see some momentum for candidates who just recently announced their formal entry into the race (i.e. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker).

Lot of activity since last month with many now either formally in the race or exploring it.

Still in the very early going here.

[thecodont]

If Crooked Hillary shows any interest in running, I'll put her on my tracking. But I'm thinking she's done in politics which is why so many women are jumping into the race this year.

I'm in a deep-blue neighborhood, so I'll pass along anything I overhear.

Most recently overheard a few days ago: a mid-twenties man, on the phone to his friend, with great excitement: "The Democratic field is wide open this year."

[Kay]

Thanks for the info !