Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) can claim to have won the first Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday night—at least according to various internet metrics.
The democratic socialist topped unscientific online opinion polls and led the contenders in a crucial search engine intrigue measure.
“Sanders repeatedly saw spikes in Google interest after he spoke. After his intro. After he talked about guns. After basically everything else he said,” The Washington Post noted.
In three of the polls Sanders had won, as of Wednesday morning, he took clear majorities, from between 64 percent and 84 percent.
He also gained almost 12,000 more new Twitter followers than all other four candidates combined, according to Forbes. Sanders took in 35,163 new followers on the social media platform.
The Google interest, at least, might partially be explained, perhaps, by Sanders’ relative lack of name recognition. Thirty-eight percent of poll respondents across the nation told Quinnipiac in late August that they didn’t know enough about the US Senator to rate him favorably.
His success online might be attributed to the zeal and organizational skills of his left-leaning base.
“I am not raising money from millionaires and billionaires, and in fact, tonight, in terms of what a political revolution is about, there are 4,000 house parties–100,000 people in this country–watching this debate tonight who want real change in this country,” Sanders pointed out at one point during the debate, when asked about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the upcoming debates, it is likely that the Democratic Party candidates will find themselves with a larger audience. Only 57 percent of registered voters were aware of the Tuesday night contest in the days running up to it, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
