Sen. Ted Cruz is winning on social media.
Between Sept. 1 to Dec. 1, the Texas Republican garnered the most mentions on Twitter out of 10 potential 2016 candidates, with 4.55 million mentions to his two handles, @SenTedCruz and @TedCruz, according to data provided to Politico.
Cruz also had similar success on Facebook, with 1.8 million people talking about him, adding up to a whopping 5.6 million interactions (posts, comments and likes) between Aug. 22 and Nov. 22.
The only other candidate with as much clout as Cruz on social media was former Secretary of State and likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who had 2.3 million people talking about her on Facebook and 5.6 million Facebook interactions.
Clinton was also the second most talked about potential 2016 presidential candidate on Twitter, with 2.85 million mentions to her @HillaryClinton Twitter handle.
Combined, Cruz and Clinton were mentioned in 40 percent of the 27 million Facebook posts, comments and content likes and 47 percent of the Twitter mentions.
“Imperfect as it is, [Facebook] is probably the biggest trove of data of what actual human beings outside of Washington, D.C., are talking about day to day,” Teddy Goff, partner at Precision Strategies and former digital director for President Obama’s re-election campaign, told Politico.
Governors Rick Perry, R-Texas, and Scott Walker, R-Wis., were the next closest competitors to Cruz on Facebook. They each had 2.9 million Facebook interactions.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, with 1.88 million and 1.81 million mentions respectively, were the second and third most popular Republicans and third and fourth most popular candidates overall on Twitter.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was the least talked about of the candidates measured.
