Twitter marks Rubio’s presence in US prez debate

Instead, many on Twitter took to mocking contender Senator Marco Rubio, who came under heavy attack yesterday from rivals. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also saw a big bump in his share of the social conversation. By the end of the night, Trump, who has the most followers, still received the largest share of mentions on Twitter Inc, with 33 per cent compared to Rubio’s 20 per cent. Ted Cruz, a US senator from Texas, came in third, with 15 per cent. 

But Twitter said an hour into the debate that Rubio was the most tweeted about candidate on the social media platform, marking the first time a candidate other than Trump came out on top within that time frame. Overall, Rubio received 10 more mentions per minute on Twitter than he did during the last Republican debate on January 28, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph. 

Three days before New Hampshire’s primary for the November 8 election, many of the mentions were negative as Rubio became a target for continuing to repeat many of the same lines from his campaign stump speech. 

“Marco, the thing is this,” said rival Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, “When you’re president of the United States, when you’re a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn’t solve one problem for one person.” 

That moment was measured by Twitter as one of the top social moments of the night. Actress Mia Farrow, @MiaFarrow, tweeted, “Rubio keeps saying the same thing.” A Marco Rubio Glitch (@RubioGlitch) account also emerged, gaining nearly 1,200 followers as of Saturday night as it parodied Rubio as a robot in tweets in Spanish and English.  

The debate was also a big night on social media for Christie. According to Brandwatch, a social media analytics firm, he had 61.5 % positive social mentions, compared to Trump’s 62.5 %.