Beto O'Rourke gains more than 89,000 Twitter followers in almost 2 weeks, most of those likely g
(Broadcast Credit: CNN; Beto O'Rourke during the second Democrat Party presidential debate)
(Note: All references to "since July 28th" refer between July 28th and August 10th).
Since July 28th, Democrat Party presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke has gained 88,330 Twitter followers on his @BetoORourke personal Twitter account.
It was most likely due to the El Paso shooting last Saturday, August 3rd.
Why?
Before the shooting and the second Democrat Party presidential debate, his campaign was on life support.
O'Rourke's personal Twitter only gained 4,224 Twitter followers between June 28th and July 28th.
With his recent surge in Twitter followers, O'Rourke's presidential bid at least has some life to it for the moment.
Only four other officially declared presidential contenders gained more Twitter followers since July 28th.
Those people are Andrew Yang, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Tulsi Gabbard.
And Hillary Clinton, an undeclared candidate also gained more Twitter followers than O'Rourke.
Clinton, Gabbard, Sanders, and Warren have gained more than 100,000 Twitter followers and Yang had gained 99,276 Twitter followers.
O'Rourke gained less than 1,400 Twitter followers combined on his personal Twitter account (@BetoORourke) and his U.S. government House of Representatives (@RepBetoORourke) Twitter account between June 28th and July 5th.
So that was only eight days.
As people should know, June 28th, was the first day after the first round of the Democrat Party presidential debates were completed.
O'Rourke also lost a combined 1,999 Twitter followers between July 5th and July 13th.
The net gain in Twitter followers he had for his two Twitter accounts between June 28th and July 13th were also in the negatives.
He lost a combined 602 Twitter followers between June 28th and July 13th.
On his @RepBetoORourke Twitter account, he has gained only 806 Twitter followers since July 28th.
That is a low number. But others are lower.
Only Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor), Senator Amy Klobuchar (@SenAmyKlobuchar), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (@gillibrandny) gained less Twitter followers in that timeframe on the Democrat Party side.
Gov. Bill Weld (@GovBillWeld), running against Donald Trump on the Republican side, also gained less Twitter followers than O'Rourke.
And Rep. John Delaney (@RepJohnDelaney) and VP Biden (@VP44) had a negative amount of Twitter followers gained, but those accounts are archived now.
However, that low number of 806 Twitter followers gained on @RepBetoORourke's Twitter is still very much a good sign for him.
Since July 28th, @RepBetoORourke was actually the 7th highest percentage in Twitter followers gained at 65% compared to Twitter followers gained/lost between June 28th and July 28th, among all of the Democrat Party presidential candidates who have been on the debate stage for both debates.
Especially when you compare that to his Twitter follower gains (or in this case Twitter follower losses) in the one month previous to that.
But @BetoORourke still finishes in first place (which I will explain shortly).
Only Michael Bennet, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee and Tim Ryan were better than that 65%.
And @RepBetoORourke would be the 6th highest percentage if you don't count John Delaney's personal @JohnDelaney Twitter account.
Congressman (@RepTimRyan) since July 28th gained 3,909 Twitter followers. That was the lowest number of Twitter followers gained among the five people mentioned two paragraphs above.
The next lowest Twitter followers gain was @JohnDelaney's which was 6,632 since July 28th.
You see, O'Rourke had lost 433 Twitter followers on his @RepBetoORourke account between June 28th and July 28th.
O'Rourke actually has only gained 373 Twitter followers since June 28th on that account.
Since June 28th (after the first Democrat Party debate), O'Rourke has gained roughly 95% of his personal Twitter account following within the last two weeks (since July 28th).
What does that mean?
Beto's personal Twitter gained an additional 84,106 more Twitter followers since July 28th compared to his Twitter follower gains between June 28th and July 28th.
So he not only met the 4,224 Twitter followers gained threshold (from his Twitter followers gain between June 28th and July 28th), he gained an additional 84,106 more Twitter followers.
For a grand total of 88,330 Twitter followers gained on his @BetoORourke Twitter account.
What about any of the other Democrat Party candidates?
Tulsi Gabbard gained an additional 56,029 Twitter followers. And that doesn't include the 29,368 Twitter followers gained threshold between June 28th and July 28th.
So Gabbard had a grand total of 85,397 Twitter followers gained since July 28th.
Andrew Yang gained an additional 24,705 Twitter followers. He gained 74,571 Twitter followers between June 28th and July 28th.
So Yang had a grand total of 99,276 Twitter followers gained since July 28th.
O'Rourke has gained 92,554 Twitter followers since June 28th on his @BetoORourke account.
One could say O'Rourke won the second Democrat Party presidential debate.
It's been 11 days since that debate.
But you all saw the debate.
We all know who won the debate.
It was Tulsi Gabbard.
Again when comparing since July 28th Twitter followers vs. the number of Twitter followers gained/lost between June 28th and July 28th:
-Gabbard had an increase in her Twitter following at 74% and 71% on two different Twitter accounts.
-And Tim Ryan was actually better than her.
-His was 79% (@RepTimRyan) and 78% (@TimRyan).
-And Jay Inslee and John Delaney each increased their Twitter following on one of their two accounts by 76% within the last two weeks.
-Andrew Yang had a 57% increase.
-Michael Bennet's @MichaelBennet Twitter account had a 66% increase. One more percentage point than O'Rourke's @RepBetoORourke Twitter account.
I don't think you increase your Twitter following by 95% by just doing well in a Presidential Debate.
I don't think you increase your Twitter following by 95% when you dig yourself into a Twitter followers hole when @BetoORourke's account lost 1,729 Twitter followers between July 5th and July 13th or when it lost 748 Twitter followers between June 28th and July 13th.
Especially when your closest contender was 16-17% away (depending on which of Tim Ryan's Twitter accounts you choose to compare it to).
So O'Rourke had to gain a lot of Twitter followers from that shooting.
No doubt in my mind.
(And to be completely honest, right after the second Democrat Party presidential debate, I thought Cory Booker actually won night two of debate two. I'm honestly trying to figure out how to justify that belief, that position, that stance at the moment with non-stop Tulsi Gabbard talk going on since the end of Democrat Party Debate Round #2.)