This Week’s 2016 Twitter Power Rankings

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Hello and welcome to Week 10 of the Slatest’s 2016 Twitter Power Rankings. Above, you’ll find our handy interactive of the entire week’s worth of candidate tweets: how many each White House hopeful sent and how often they were retweeted and favorited, along with how each fared in the 140-character fight with their political rivals on both sides of the aisle. (Click to zoom in on a particular candidate, and click again to see the content of each tweet.)
Below, meanwhile, you’ll find our tried-and-true method of ranking each candidate’s single most successful tweet of the past seven days. Together, the two offer a helpful snapshot of which topics dominated the political conversation online and also give us some insight into which contenders are winning the campaign Twitter wars and why.
The ground rules again:
- For the rankings below, we’re defining a candidate’s most successful tweet as the one that receives the most retweets.
- Tweets that include a direct request for a retweet are ineligible for the traditional rankings because that’s cheating. RT if you agree! (Retweet-begging tweets, though, will still appear in the interactive at the top.)
- Only tweets from the past seven days are eligible. Since we’ll publish the weekly rankings every Friday, that means any tweet sent in the seven days prior to when we hit the big red button at around 10 a.m. to cull all the data.
Without any further ado:
1.) Hillary Clinton (Last week: 3)
#GOPdebate pic.twitter.com/rBT90JvCmM
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 29, 2015
2.) Donald Trump (2)
An aerial shot of Jacksonville crowd yesterday! I may as well show you because the media won't. #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/iJf87UVMEt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2015
3.) Bernie Sanders (1)
Welcome to the school-to-prison pipeline! This unjust criminalization of our youth has to end. #AssaultatSpringValleyHigh
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 27, 2015
4.) Marco Rubio (9)
The Democrats have the ultimate Super PAC. It’s called the mainstream media.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 29, 2015
5.) Ben Carson (6)
It is important to remember that amateurs built the Ark and it was the professionals that built the Titanic. @my_ccu pic.twitter.com/6Nqod4sicS
— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) October 29, 2015
6.) Ted Cruz (7)
How about we talk about the substantive issues the American people care about? #CNBCGOPDebate
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 29, 2015
7.) John Kasich (5)
Just getting warmed up. 3pts cc @Sixers (don't delete this) Great young team 🏀 pic.twitter.com/BnAiXqzVUM
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) October 23, 2015
8.) Jeb Bush (4)
Got my debating boots on! #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/NdMyEmkT42
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 29, 2015
9.) Rand Paul (8)
Liberty thrives when government is small. I want a government so small you can't even see it. #StandwithRand #GOPDebate
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 29, 2015
10.) Martin O'Malley (11)
As a parent and as a father, I would be ballistic if somebody did that to my daughter. #assaultatspringvalleyhigh https://t.co/Z4M0HtDw4L
— Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) October 27, 2015
11.) Carly Fiorina (13)
In your heart of hearts, you cannot wait to see a debate between Hillary and Carly. https://t.co/hhEBP3gBmk https://t.co/glWfKt72vL
— Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) October 29, 2015
12.) Chris Christie (18)
I gotta tell you the truth, even in New Jersey what you are doing is called rude. #CNBCGOPDebate #TellingItLikeItIs https://t.co/6fzoOM94vc
— Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) October 29, 2015
13.) Mike Huckabee (10)
Medicare and Social Security are NOT entitlements. They are NOT welfare. They are EARNED benefits. #GOPDebate #CNBCGOPDebate
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 29, 2015
14.) George Pataki (12)
Embrace science, embrace innovation and technology. #CNBCGOPDebate
— George E. Pataki (@GovernorPataki) October 28, 2015
15.) Lawrence Lessig (17)
Iowa poll released today has @Lessig at 4%! The DNC is running out of excuses. It's time to #LetLessigDebate!
— Lessig2016 (@Lessig2016) October 28, 2015
16.) Rick Santorum (15)
The liberal Left wants to provide amnesty & increase the influx of immigrant workers because they want to increase their power #GOPDebate
— Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) October 28, 2015
17.) Bobby Jindal (14)
People who come to America should want to be Americans. https://t.co/ABmX2D0rGW
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) October 27, 2015
18.) Lindsey Graham (16)
.@SenSanders went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon...and I don't think he ever came back! #CNBCGOPDebate
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 28, 2015
19.) Jim Gimore (19)
#CNBCGOPDebate will I be invited to the next debate if I promise to use the word "crap"?
— James S Gilmore (@gov_gilmore) October 29, 2015
Overall RT Winner: Trump.
Ben Carson may be gaining on him—and in some cases, passing him—in the national polls, but the former neurosurgeon's more measured approach (or anyone else's) can't compete with Trump's shear social media wattage. That makes six overall victories in a row for the Donald.
Single RT Winner: Clinton.
Prediction: This will not be the last time we see Team Hillary dusting off this gif from her Benghazi testimony.