This Week’s 2016 Twitter Power Rankings

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Hello and welcome to Week 15 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.) Bernie Sanders (Last week: 1)
The U.S. is a strong nation when we stand together. We are weak when we allow racism and xenophobia to divide us. cc: @realDonaldTrump
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 7, 2015
2.) Donald Trump (3)
Is that all there is? We need a new President - FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
3.) Hillary Clinton (2)
Tell Donald Trump: Hate is not an American value. pic.twitter.com/qlhuKPKwn0
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 8, 2015
4.) Martin O'Malley (4)
.@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: he is running for President as a fascist demagogue.
— Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) December 7, 2015
5.) Jeb Bush (8)
Donald Trump is unhinged. His "policy" proposals are not serious.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 7, 2015
6.) George Pataki (1)
We must declare war on radical Islam. @LorettaLynch I'm not edging toward violent speech, I'm declaring we kill them. Go ahead, arrest me.
— George E. Pataki (@GovernorPataki) December 4, 2015
7.) Marco Rubio (9)
I disagree with Donald Trump's latest proposal. His habit of making offensive and outlandish statements will not bring Americans together.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 8, 2015
8.) Lindsey Graham (16)
Every candidate for president needs to do the right thing & condemn @Realdonaldtrump's statement.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015
9.) Rand Paul (7)
Let's be clear: disarming more law abiding citizens will not stop mass murderers and terrorists.
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 7, 2015
10.) Ben Carson (6)
I don't need "color codes" to tell me we're at war w/ ISIS. We need a leader who's ALWAYS prepared to defend America pic.twitter.com/8FhczvnUR9
— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) December 7, 2015
11.) Carly Fiorina (15)
Vintage Obama: No strategy, no leadership. Politics as usual.
— Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) December 7, 2015
12.) John Kasich (12)
We said it 2 weeks ago & we'll say it again, @realDonaldTrump’s rhetoric is dangerous and bad for America. -Staff https://t.co/zY9yWh4Ajq
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) December 7, 2015
13.) Ted Cruz (5)
We must have the courage to speak with moral clarity -- to call evil by its name. Watch my speech from @Heritage: https://t.co/vN9W4ZVsIH
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 10, 2015
14.) Rick Santorum (15)
Pres solution - 'Congress authorize what I am already doing and restrict law abiding people's right to defend themselves.'
— Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) December 7, 2015
15.) Chris Christie (13)
Full remarks from @MedvedSHOW on @realDonaldTrump statement. pic.twitter.com/GtK8LYQNsF
— Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) December 7, 2015
16.) Mike Huckabee (11)
Why can't @POTUS say, "They're our enemy. We're going to eradicate them before they keep killing us." Watch ⬇️ https://t.co/AAv9bDAcTN
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) December 7, 2015
17.) Jim Gilmore (17)
Trump's fascist talk drives all minorities from GOP.
— Jim Gilmore (@gov_gilmore) December 8, 2015
Single RT winner: Bernie
Donald Trump may have hijacked the national conversation with his no-Muslims-allowed plan, but it was Bernie who held on to the top spot in our rankings by calling out Trump's proposal for what it is. Sanders' fellow Democrats found similar success, most notably Martin O'Malley who posted his second fourth-place finish in as many weeks.
Overall RT winner: Donald
That's 11 in a row in this category for a man who routinely accounts for about half of the total RTs garnered by the entire field in a given week.
Most Awkward Apostrophe winner: Toronto's Globe and Mail
This Donald Trump related correction in the Globe is maybe the funniest thing you'll read today. pic.twitter.com/dQKqxXGgsc
— Steve Ladurantaye (@sladurantaye) December 11, 2015
It's OK, Canada, my hardened cynicism is no match for your children welcoming Syrian refugees to your country.