Ranked: The Most Influential Republicans on Twitter

Methodology

The Brandwatch React team used Audiences to search for Twitter handles that self-identified as Republican or conservative who had tweeted election-related terms in the last three months. For example, an account that included “tcot” or “GOP” in their bio who had tweeted the word “election” recently would be included in the wider list. We did not search for terms relating to individual candidates so the list is not disproportionately made up of Trump supporters.

Based on these accounts’ interactions with others (the more influential the better), they were each assigned an influence score. In this article, we’ll list the top 20 most influential Republicans on Twitter.

Follower counts and account names were correct at the time of writing.

The top ten

The interesting thing about this list is that it’s not necessarily the political heavyweights that are topping the charts. By looking at non-candidate specific mentions in bios and tweets and simply looking for allegiance to the GOP or conservatism, we found a number of really influential characters who might not all be mainstream media icons but are influential in online circles instead.

The top five accounts we found give a good idea of the breadth of different accounts in our dataset – an organization, a politician, a media professional, a Trump supporter and a Trump hater.

1. AppSame

@AppSame is a “Conservative Political Marketing Firm helping to bring America back to its greatness” and boasts 1.11m followers. 

Everyone of you are Hero's @DallasPD
God Bless All of You pic.twitter.com/N70eujrXjq

— AppSame (@AppSame) July 8, 2016

The account is deeply involved in political conversations as a brief scroll down their timeline will demonstrate.

2. Sarah Palin

You might not be surprised to see Sarah Palin on the list. She’s a prolific Twitter user with 1.28 million followers.

She tweets stories of patriotism and inspiration as well as news articles relating to the Presidential race.

Hillary Campaign Gives an Answer for Her Coughing Attacks and 'Medical Episode': She Has Pneumonia https://t.co/lKDZXE15Pu

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) September 12, 2016

3. I’m Chuck, Dude! :)

Dude! Chuck tweets about cars and religious messages. He’s also not a fan of Trump.

I’ve been a Conservative since I was born, A Conservative I’ll be til the day I die. pic.twitter.com/rJ6fT5mZh0

— I’m Chuck, Dude! :) (@ChuckNellis) September 13, 2016

4. Michelle Malkin

As senior editor of the Conservative Review, Malkin is an expected addition to the list. She generates some serious engagement with her tweets.

Flashback: Hillary spreading her pneumonia germs to a little girl & lying to press about her health. #GetAwayFromHer https://t.co/cy6Y7aVeov

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) September 11, 2016

5. CC

@ChristiChat has an impressive number of followers and is a big supporter of #TrumpPence2016. Her poetry is impeccable.

You can call us a name
But you can't stop won't stop!
supporters of #TrumpTrain

Thanks for
Retweets•Follows•Chats pic.twitter.com/2mpNaRe05Q

— CC (@ChristiChat) September 13, 2016

Carly Fiorina is listed in the top ten as well as the official GOP account. The fact that they’re listed alongside much less widely known individuals gives a sense of the power of lesser-known personalities on Twitter to make a splash in the political conversation.

The full list

You’ve had the top five and top ten – now here’s the top 20.

You’ll notice how close together influence scores are; there’s really not much between many of the accounts.

Name	Twitter handle	Followers	Influence score
AppSame	@AppSame	1.11m	88
Sarah Palin	@SarahPalinUSA	1.28m	86
I’m Chuck, Dude! :)	@ChuckNellis	111k	86
Michelle Malkin	@michellemalkin	1.44m	85
CC	@ChristiChat	163k	85
Deplorable Carmine Z	@CarmineZozzora	160k	85
Pray Always!	@erotao	102k	84
GOP	@GOP	800k	83
Dr. Marty Fox	@DrMartyFox	106k	83
Carly Fiorina	@CarlyFiorina	697k	82
Max Emfinger Patriot	@EmfingerSScout	682k	82
Anna Maria Perez	@A_M_Perez	110k	82
Lori Hendry	@Lrihendry	96.1k	82
(((Lady Patriot)))	@marylene58	43.5k	82
Reince Priebus	@Reince	477k	81
House Republicans	@HouseGOP	318k	81
Meghan McCain	@MeghanMcCain	275k	81
Judy Stines Ex-GOP	@jstines3	99.1k	81
Daniel Hannan	@DanielJHannan	90.9k	81
Rick Wilson	@TheRickWilson	70.1k	80

 

In the world of Twitter, it’s possible for anyone to have an influence over the political debate of the day.

Are you a journalist looking to cover our data? We have plenty more. Email us [email protected] for more information