Eye on the competition: The 2016 candidates' Twitter follow lists tell a story

Politics

Eye on the competition: The 2016 candidates’ Twitter follow lists tell a story

Using Twitter to get a message out is now a must-do for presidential candidates, but looking at the accounts they follow can be instructive, too. Their follow list can reflect not only their personality and interests, but also sometimes their strategy. Jeb Bush follows Donald Trump on Twitter, but that’s a one-way street: Trump mainly follows people with a connection to himself. Ted Cruz’s follow list is a big tea party, though he keeps an eye on President Obama, too. Marco Rubio seems open to following everyone under the sun — Democrats, fellow Republicans, insiders of every type and an odd assortment of outliers who offer advice on body-piercing, playing craps and getting out of debt.

Overall, the candidates’ choices reflect an interest in people who think like they do. Few Republicans or Democrats want to follow what people on the other side say. And most — Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders among them — don’t follow most or any of their party rivals.