Top House hashtags:
1. #qanon: This has shown pretty consistent levels over the last 10 days. In most of its high-retweet instances, it’s focusing on #GA-07, where Democrat Carolyn Bordeaux is running against Rich McCormick, who Democrats accuse of being a QAnon adherent.
2. #txpolitics: Today comes largely in the context of open letters to Texas senators urging them not to support a Senate vote to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the election.
3. #rbg: A smattering of different issues from both the red and blue communities, with some tweets calling for a quick Senate vote, some asking “What would RBG do?”
Top Senate hashtags:
1. #lindseymustgo: A timely attack on GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is currently engaged in a truly exceptional bit of hypocritical flip-flopping, calling for a vote on a new Supreme Court justice after having specifically testified to Congress in 2016 that he would support no such action in these circumstances. Help me here — is his “knowtheirnames: Most typically used to honor the Black victims of police killings, but also seen in the context of COVID-19 victims (with a significant share of the responsibility for their deaths laid at Trump’s feet). Here also linked with the campaign to take out the flexibly moraled Graham in South Carolina.
3. #flipfive: A Democratic tag calling to flip at least five Senate seats from red to blue, today focusing most heavily on GOP Sen. Susan Collins‘ race in Maine, where Democratic challenger Sara Gideon is well ahead in the polls.
Interesting climbers:
#teamandrews: GOP challenger Aliscia Andrews is running a strong Twitter campaign, and evidently a strong ground game as well, in #VA-10.
#wexit: As part of her campaign, Andrews is calling for a #wexit (a play, obviously, on the UK’s well-thought-out Brexit), referring to her efforts to unseat Democratic incumbent Jennifer Wexton.
#remedyPAC: Remedy PAC is a Democratic PAC led by CA Congressman Eric Swalwell. Its Twitter presence today is primarily focusing on aiding Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield in #IASen, who has a very slight polling lead over GOP incumbent Sen. Joni Ernst. This is a hard-fought and already very expensive race – watch for fireworks to come.
GENERAL TRENDS:
The passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has predictably galvanized certain sectors of election Twitter more than others. While calls to hold or delay a Senate vote on her replacement are strong on the respective right and left, the most focused response is coming from the campaign against South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who notoriously said in 2016 that he would not support a vote on a new justice this close to a presidential election, and asked onlookers to “use his own words against me” if he changed his mind.
True, on-the-record hypocrisy of this scale is like a stinky cheese: Once you develop a taste for it, you begin to appreciate it, and … no, no, it’s just foul. That’s my bad.
In any case, several groups, including @ProjectLincoln and @LindseyMustGo have joined forces for a big TV buy against Graham on the strength of this issue.
A number of hashtags (#iowapoll, #remedypac) are also pointing out a new poll showing Democrat Theresa Greenfield with a slight lead over GOP incumbent Ernst in #IASen.
No clear standouts in the House, although the drum beat of Twitter support for #GA-07 Democratic candidate Carolyn Bordeaux remains steady and strong.