LAST 24 HOURS IN A NUTSHELL:
Top House hashtags:
Top Senate hashtags:
Interesting climbers:
- #walkaway (9th place House): This is a frequently used GOP (or GOP-backing propaganda troll?) hashtag alleging that Democrats are “walking away” from their party thanks to disgust with Obama, identity politics, communism, etc. Haven’t seen any research on this yet, but this one has long smelled like a fake.
- #preexistingconditions (18th place House): Here is the Democrats’ consistent and evidently quite effective message: Republicans have repeatedly voted to strip their constituents of guaranteed insurance coverage for preexisting medical conditions.
- #voteearly (12th place House): A number of states are already well into early voting periods. The strongest calls here are coming from FL-27, where GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is backing Maria Elvira Salazar, KS-03, where Democrat Sharice Davids has shown a consistent lead in polls, and the closely fought WA-08.
GENERAL TRENDS:
On the House side, Democrats across the country are (correctly) accusing GOP incumbents of voting to gut the Affordable Care Act. GOP incumbents have scrambled to deflect the criticism, even lying in sync about their own records and their opponents’ statements.
#GOPdelete8 is a Democrat meme in which people are posting their wish lists of GOP incumbents they’d like to see defeated on Tuesday. And while #maga has fallen from its heights of a few days ago, it remains very strong, boosted by Trump endorsements.
On the Senate side, Michigan GOP candidate John James has decidedly taken over the top-tweeting spot from Ted Cruz in the final days. Perhaps not coincidentally, the district has also seen a strong surge in bot posts, as Cruz’s campaign did in the days when it began to appear that Beto O’Rourke would be a serious contender.