It’s Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz leaving everyone else in the dust – on Facebook, that is.
According to data provided by the social media giant, Clinton and Cruz registered the most Facebook “interactions” –- meaning likes, comments, posts and shares -- in the 24 hours surrounding the launch of their presidential campaigns.
Clinton, who used Facebook to showcase the video announcing her White House bid, won a whopping 10.1 million interactions from 4.7 million unique users in the period around her official announcement.
Cruz, the first presidential candidate to make his run official, registered 5.5 million interactions when he jumped into the race, including chatter from 2.1 million unique people.
That’s more than double the Facebook activity in the same time period of time surrounding the campaign launches of the other five GOP candidates who have since launched their presidential bids.
The numbers aren’t necessarily a gauge of support, since “interactions” can include both positive and negative references to a candidate.
Rand Paul, the second GOP candidate to announce his candidacy, was the subject of 1.9 million interactions in the 24-hour period surrounding his launch. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida had 1.3 million; retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson had 1.5 million; former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina had 515,000; and Mike Huckabee had 814,000.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton’s only declared Democratic opponent so far, earned 592,000 interactions around his campaign launch.
