These 2020 Democrats are receiving the most public interest
While the pool of Democratic contenders for the 2020 election cycle continues to grow, Americans’ interest in some candidates so far appears to be higher than others.
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg – a previously little-known name on the national political scene who has yet to formally declare his candidacy – has generated a huge amount of interest, particularly on social media.
According to data from NewsWhip, as reported by Axios, Buttigieg generated the highest amount of social media interactions – across both Facebook and Twitter – between March 10 and March 31. Since March 10, the Indiana politician has added 447,000 followers on Twitter.
Over that timeframe, Buttigieg has also added more Instagram and Facebook followers than any candidate except former Texas lawmaker Beto O’Rourke who picked up 92,000 and 82,000, respectively, as reported by Axios.
Buttigieg said on Monday he has raised about $7 million from more than 76,000 individuals – enough to qualify for the party’s first debate.
Meanwhile, on cable news programs, O’Rourke generated the largest amount of coverage last week, as reported by FiveThirtyEight – although a large amount of programming was dedicated to the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. California Sen. Kamala Harris, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren were among the other candidates that received more than 60 mentions across CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
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Buttigieg’s cable news mentions remain relatively low.
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According to data released by Google, it is a rumored candidate that has garnered the most search interest throughout recent weeks – former Vice President Joe Biden. Search interest for the potential contender rose 100 percent between March 24 and March 31-April 1.
Meanwhile, Buttigieg followed closely, with his search traffic skyrocketing between Dec. 30 and April 1. His search traffic over the past week is up 35 percent. Sanders and O’Rourke garnered the third and fourth highest levels of search interest as of April 1, respectively.
Sanders' team announced on Tuesday that he raised $18 million in the first quarter, bringing available funds upwards of $28 million.