Bernie Sanders is winning the #IVoted hashtag in ‘yuge’ fashion

Daniel Bean
·Assistant Editor
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We’re ready to call it: Based on our in-depth analysis of social media posts, we project that Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., will win the #IVoted hashtag in the 2016 presidential primaries.

Of the 300 #IVoted tweets and Instagrams we surveyed during yesterday’s “Super Tuesday 2” voting, 75 indicated support for Sanders with #FeeltheBern, #Bernie2016, or other messaging.

That number didn’t just edge out competing presidential candidates — Sanders won by a “yuge” margin. Republican Ted Cruz, the junior U.S. senator from Texas, came in a distant second, with a meager seven #IVoted posts signaling support for his bid. Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, and Donald Trump, of reality TV and Trump Steaks fame, each pulled in a humble three supportive #IVoted tweets or ‘grams themselves.

Of the posts we counted on Tuesday, 204 went the secret-ballot route, giving no indication of which candidate the poster supported.

A smaller survey of #IVoted tweets posted in earlier primaries echoes the stranglehold Sanders had on the hashtag during Tuesday’s Michigan and Mississippi primaries.

So why is Sanders — a candidate who’s far behind in the race for delegates needed to win his party’s nomination — kicking butt in the hashtag game?

While many of the 2016 presidential campaigns have promoted #IVoted on social media, Sanders is particularly popular among the young voters who make up Twitter’s and Instagram’s largest age demographics (18 to 35). Those demographics could also explain why Ted Cruz gets the best #IVoted support on the Republican side; surveys (here and here) indicate that he is the most popular GOPer among voters aged 17 to 29. That said, “top-supported Republican on social media” isn’t saying much, since Democrats have a pretty tight grip on the millennial vote.

To that end, no Republican comes close to rivaling Sanders’s support on Instagram. By our count, his top three hashtags (#FeeltheBern, #BernieSanders, and #Bernie2016) even outpace Clinton’s (#HillaryClinton, #Hillary2016, and #ImWithHer) in number of posts by almost 3 to 1.

Still, despite his social media stardom, Sanders’s path to victory continues to look doubtful — more doubtful even than Cruz’s. But if the powers that be decided to rewrite the Constitution to allow voting by hashtag in presidential elections, Bernie would win by a landslide.

Email me at danbean@yahoo-inc.com. Follow me on Twitter @danielwbean. And for all the hottest tech news and gadget reviews, follow Yahoo Tech on Facebook!