How 30,000 Tweets Tell You What the Democratic Presidential Candidates Care About (Interactive)

[brooklynite]

Politico

(published June 26)

The second round of Democratic debates on July 30 and 31 will feature 20 of the two dozen candidates still in the race. For 19 of them, it will be a second chance to differentiate themselves in a crowded field.

For most of the presidential hopefuls, social media has been the preferred platform for announcing policy proposals and clarifying positions. Since the beginning of 2019, candidates who qualified for the debates sent about 30,000 tweets—and about half of them mentioned at least one major campaign issue, according to a Bloomberg analysis of their Twitter posts. In total, issues were mentioned in candidate tweets 21,000 times. Jobs, the environment and social issues—including women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and race—have been the issues most discussed in their tweets—making up a combined 36% of topics mentioned.

Some hot-button issues aren’t yet trending in the Democratic field. Infrastructure has barely registered. On average the candidates have mentioned it just eight times in tweets this year, and have tweeted about trade wars and tariffs—defining issues for Trump—even less.

But some candidates have specific focuses that differentiate them from the rest of the contenders. Washington Governor Jay Inslee has made climate change the focal point of his campaign and talks more about the issue on Twitter than any other candidate. Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard is the candidate who has devoted the largest share of tweets to discuss the military and national defense. Some candidates have employed a stream of consistent Twitter posts to define where they stand on the issues. A couple, relatively speaking, barely tweet at all.