Interest in Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore surged Thursday night as the former Virginia governor makes his first debate appearance since August.
“Search interest” for Gilmore has “spiked” 700 percent on Google during the Fox News/Google undercard debate, according to data released by Google Trends, the data compilation and analysis arm of the technology company.
This just in: searches for @gov_gilmore are up 700% during the early #GOPdebate. pic.twitter.com/hH40gB6vsd
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) January 29, 2016
Gilmore, who has consistently come in last in polling since the campaign season started, appeared Thursday evening in the “happy hour” debate with former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. To qualify for the undercard, candidates had to earn at least 1 percent in a recent national poll, which Gilmore accomplished in a Fox News poll released last week.
Also according to Google Trends, the most searched question on Gilmore is “Why is Jim Gilmore still running?” followed by “Who is Jim Gilmore? and “Is Jim Gilmore married?”
The most-searched issues on Gilmore were immigration, gay marriage, national debt, education and economy. Gilmore, an Army veteran, has largely staked his campaign on the issues of national security issues and veterans’ affairs, as well as the economy.
