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Social media conversations around Republican front-runner Donald Trump have reached a fever pitch leading up to Super Tuesday, the day when more delegates are at at stake than on any other single day in the presidential primary.
Some 9.3 million tweets have mentioned Trump since Feb. 21 — nearly double the number of mentions the week prior, according to Twitter. That dwarfs the conversation around his two closest rivals in the Republican primary, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (2.3 million tweets) and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas (2 million mentions).
And that’s not even counting tweets with the hashtag #MakeAmericaDrumpfAgain, an effort suggested by comedian John Oliver last night that has already garnered almost 200,000 mentions.
The social media buzz tracks with polling of likely voters, with Trump projected to garner 49 percent of the Republican primary vote, according to a CNN/ORC national poll Monday. On the eve of the big contest, the billionaire finds himself mired in a racially charged controversy after he initially refused to disavow Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke in an interview on CNN — which he later blamed on a bad earpiece.
Trump turned to Twitter to try to defuse the issue:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/703996959544250373
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had the social media edge over her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. She’s garnered 3 million Twitter mentions to his 2.4 million.
The CNN poll has Clinton besting Sanders, with 55 percent to 38 percent.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
