A new study from George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management found that, at least by social media standards, Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz are leading the 2016 presidential race. The report looked at how well candidates' campaigns fared by comparing the popularity of candidates' names and websites, as well as what words are shared in conjunction with candidates' names.
Of all declared 2016 presidential hopefuls' websites, Hillary Clinton's campaign website received the most shares, with 4.8 million social media and news mentions. And it wasn't just the number of times her campaign was mentioned that was significant: Clinton's name was frequently shared with words like "champion," "everyday," and "Americans," which the researchers believe demonstrates that people are taking her campaign messages seriously.
Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) campaign website received the second-most number of news and social media mentions, about 2.5 million. By social media posts alone, Clinton's website was shared 173,342 times, versus 85,235 for Cruz's website. The report looked at 10.3 million mentions of 2016 candidates' campaigns from March 15 to May 15.
On the losing end of the study, meanwhile, were Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), whose social media mentions most often had negative word associations. Read more on the report's candidate rankings over at Politico.