LAST 24 HOURS IN A NUTSHELL:
Top House hashtags:
Top Senate hashtags:
Interesting climbers:
- #teamsharice (7th place): Supporters of Democrat Sharice Davids in Kansas 03.
- #goptaxscam (9th place): A catch-all for criticism of the GOP tax law. Today particularly active in Pennsylvania 01 and Virginia 10.
- #silentbrian (10th place): A Democrat hashtag primarily referring to GOP incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania 01. “Silent,” because he is accused of saying nothing to oppose Trump, Ryan or corporate donors, despite claiming to be among Congress’ most independent members.
GENERAL TRENDS
On the House side, the aftereffects of the New Hampshire election are fading (our “midnight” is UTC time, so events tend to slip over a half-day longer than might otherwise be expected). The core Dem hashtags of #takeitback, #bluewave, and #flipitblue are widely dispersed but declining from earlier in the week.
This means other single-issues or single-district tags are making an appearance. Today’s #3, @vets4goj, largely comes from Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones and her supporters in Texas 23, where there’s an ongoing Twitter campaign highlighting veterans’ support for Ortiz Jones over incumbent GOP Rep. Will Hurd.
Few surprises on the Senate side. Cruz’s campaign is still on top with #choosecruz and #istand. This latter is a repeat of an earlier tweet-wave, focusing on a Marine who lost his legs in service, and who thus can’t stand for the national anthem. Tag line: Will you stand for him?
This being, of course, dog-whistle racism wrapped in a kind of bullying patriotism, referencing the athletes who are protesting racial inequality and police brutality.
As noted, we’ll have more on Cruz’s exceptionally high Twitter numbers in later posts.