This Week’s 2016 Twitter Power Rankings
Hello and welcome back to Slatest’s 2016 Twitter Power Rankings. Above, you’ll find our handy interactive of the past 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 further ado:
1.) Bernie Sanders (Last week: 2)
I cannot think of an American hero more deserving of this honor than Harriet Tubman. https://t.co/GL64NPrOL1
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 20, 2016
2.) Donald Trump (1)
Thank you New York! I love you!#MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/T1J0aUwMXl
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2016
3.) Hillary Clinton (3)
Thank you, New York. You put your faith in me 16 years ago and again tonight. I'll never stop fighting for you. -H pic.twitter.com/Tqp8lCYhvq
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 20, 2016
4.) Ted Cruz (4)
We should debate before Pennsylvania goes to the polls on Tuesday, @realDonaldTrump #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/BXnQILGdGL
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 20, 2016
5.) John Kasich (5)
Now that Cruz is now mathematically eliminated, the only diff between him and Kasich is Kasich can defeat Clinton.https://t.co/D7Nmg9dhod
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) April 20, 2016
Individual RT Winner: Sanders
Bernie takes the top spot in this week's rankings with an assist from Harriet Tubman, who will be on the front of the next $20 bill. While Sanders has been unable to keep pace with Clinton in the delegate race, he's had little trouble finding vocal supporters, on social media or otherwise, throughout the campaign. As Slate's Michelle Goldberg noted this week, his rival hasn't always been as fortunate.
Overall RT Winner: Trump
Trump posted a commanding victory in the New York primary on Tuesday, a win that shifted the focus from what had been going wrong for Trump in recent weeks to what may still go right. The top tweets from all three GOP hopefuls, meanwhile, combine to offer a snapshot of the current Trump-favoring status quo: John Kasich is throwing stones at Ted Cruz, who is trying to start a fight with Trump. Trump, meanwhile, is celebrating another victory.