3 charts that explain the GOP debate

The last Republican debate before Tuesday's New Hampshire primary was an intense event, full of heated exchanges and attacks. But unlike previous debates, Donald Trump wasn't the center of attention this time around. Marco Rubio was.

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz spoke the most with 18:18 and 17:08 minutes respectively. Donald Trump — who had most the airtime in previous Republican debates — faded into third.

The debate had lots of exchanges, mostly centered on Rubio

If we look closer at the numbers we see that Rubio had numerous interjections during the night — many of them in response to attacks from Chris Christie and Donald Trump:

Kasich and Carson managed to keep out of the crossfire for the most of the night:

Viewers were most interested in candidates' personal stories

According to Google Trends, the biggest spike in internet searches about Rubio came not during his gaffe, but when he told a personal story about his brother in the military. The second biggest search spike came when Cruz told another story about his half-sister's death.

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