React: Candidates Fail to Impress Social During 8th #DemDebate

Miami, Florida played host to the latest Democratic debate on Thursday night in which candidates failed to impress the online audience.

The deliberations were co-hosted by Univision and CNN with the topics of immigration and Latino rights expected to be at the forefront of the debate.

Lol they’re not holding back on these questions, are they? This is going to get heated, I think. ??#DemDebate

— sweet pea (@p_sillycilly) March 10, 2016

The results from the Mississippi and Michigan primaries were fresh in everyone’s minds going into the debate, especially as Sanders caused a big upset in Michigan where he won by a fraction of the vote.

Many sources claimed that the debate on Sunday framed the results of these primaries so it will be interesting to see what effect last night has on the proceeding votes.

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Immigration Reform

Both candidates noted their commitment to a comprehensive immigration reform plan in their opening statements and this topic carried through into the first thirty minutes of the debate. Both Democratic candidates said they were “adamantly” opposed to illegal immigration.

The topic dominated the social conversation for the majority of the first half of the debate and received over 13,000 social mentions in relation the candidates.

#DemDebate: The worthy topic of immigration has received over 6,000 social mentions since the start of the debate pic.twitter.com/y1Rp2kXVhk

— Brandwatch React (@BW_React) March 10, 2016

While Donald Trump’s wall bordering Mexico came into play it was the topic of child deportation that got the most airtime, both online and onstage.

At 9:59 pm ET the term “deport children” garnered over 4,580 mentions on Twitter.

I will not deport children from the United States of America. I can make that promise. #DemDebate

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 10, 2016

Considering that this debate was hosted in Miami the topic of climate change was on the tip of everyone’s tongues. But, while the issue was brought to the table the discussion did not transfer onto social media as it commanded only 12% of the conversation compared with the other main topics we tracked, totalling 3,980 mentions on Twitter.

Foreign policy (4,750) and healthcare (5,230) were, yet again, two of the leading topics of the night.  

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How the candidates performed

The debate moderators did not waste any time getting to the point.

They hit Hillary Clinton with straight shooting questions ranging from the her “astounding upset” in Michigan to her emails and Benghazi.

One of her defining moments of the night came when she was asked if she thought Donald Trump was a racist. The former secretary of state denounced his anti-immigration rhetoric and even threw in some Spanish flair by saying “basta!” to the controversial Republican candidate.

“You don’t make America great again by getting rid of everything that made America great.” –#HillaryClinton

— Lisa Weiss (@lisaweissmedia) March 10, 2016

 

If we look at the biggest spikes in conversation during the debate it’s clear Sanders dominated.

#DemDebate: The debate on Wall Street and the Koch Brothers garnered 2,360 mentions in 1 minute for @BernieSanderspic.twitter.com/JotZxbspbc

— Brandwatch React (@BW_React) March 10, 2016

The largest spike by far came following a question in relation to Clinton’s reluctance to release her speech transcripts, and whether or not she had something to hide.

Following an intense exchange Sanders exclaimed, “Madame secretary, I will match my record with yours any day of the week”.

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“An Upset”

Something unusual happened in this debate that has not yet occurred in the presidential race.

First of all, both candidates closed the debate with negative social sentiment but even more notable is the fact that Sanders finished second to Clinton in the sentiment poll.

Roughly half an hour into the debate Sanders’ sentiment was 64% positive and just over thirty minutes later this had dropped by 41% leaving the candidate trending negatively.

We cannot say definitively what caused this pretty drastic drop but it is curious as the Vermont Senator received a standing ovation following his closing statement.

Did Bernie sanders just get a standing ovation? Hillary go ahead and get some ointment, that bern is coming

— Azmar Middleton (@Azzzyyyy) March 10, 2016

By the end of the debate, Sanders’ sentiment had recovered somewhat to 39% positive, but this was still 6% behind Hillary Clinton.

Interestingly, both candidates finished the #DemDebate with negative sentiment while @BernieSanders finished last pic.twitter.com/BJn7RiKuaw

— Brandwatch React (@BW_React) March 10, 2016

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We’re bang in the middle of March madness so be sure to keep up with all the social data over at our Presidential Election 2016 data viz and follow @BW_React for more juicy data.

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