--- title: Can Wikipedia Predict the Elections? description: The polling models show Republicans have the edge in Senate races, but Democrats are getting looked up more on Wikipedia. canonical: https://time.com/3555148/midterms-senate-wikipedia-mcconnell/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-03T20:39:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:11:33.117Z article:section: Politics og:title: Can Wikipedia Predict the Elections? og:description: The polling models show Republicans have the edge in Senate races, but Democrats are getting looked up more on Wikipedia. og:url: https://time.com/3555148/midterms-senate-wikipedia-mcconnell/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4e24efe814f7c97/698763f2f887dcbe96e87dd6/ap502904711188.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4304 og:image:height: 2421 og:image:alt: Alison Lundergan Grimes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can Wikipedia Predict the Elections? twitter:description: The polling models show Republicans have the edge in Senate races, but Democrats are getting looked up more on Wikipedia. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4e24efe814f7c97/698763f2f887dcbe96e87dd6/ap502904711188.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Can Wikipedia Predict the Elections? > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Nov 3, 2014 8:39 PM UTC  Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes holds a mailer she asserted to be an illegal voter intimidation tactic as she rallies her supporters during a stop at the United Auto Workers hall in Bowling Green, Ky., Monday, Nov. 3, 2014. Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes holds a mailer she asserted to be an illegal voter intimidation tactic as she rallies her supporters during a stop at the United Auto Workers hall in Bowling Green, Ky., Monday, Nov. 3, 2014. J. Scott Applewhite—AP  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Nov 3, 2014 8:39 PM UTC You can almost picture it: The voter picks up the voter guide — or maybe even an absentee ballot — sits down at his or her computer and gets ready to decide the crucial Senate race. First stop: Wikipedia. Yes, the community-edited online encyclopedia is hardly the most thorough (or fair) source of information on political candidates, but it’s not a bad start. (Hey, we’ve done it, and we’re professionals.) So what does it tell us about the crucial Senate fights? A look at traffic statistics on Wikipedia over the last 30 days (using [this website](http://stats.grok.se/), which seems authoritative enough) seems to give a little more hope to Democrats than you might expect. Now, keep a few things in mind. Nate Silver, the nerd king of big data prediction modeling, gives the Republican Party a 74.4% chance of taking the Senate. Lesser-known third-party candidates typically don’t have Wikipedia pages, while incumbents often have had them for longer than previously unknown challengers. And the types of voters who look up candidates on Wikipedia may not be representative of voters overall. All that said, here’s which candidates in key Senate races were looked up most on Wikipedia over the last month. Arkansas **Tom Cotton (R) 14,899** Mark Pryor (D) 12,327 New Hampshire **Scott Brown (R) 34,563** Jeanne Shaheen (D) 18,400 Iowa **Joni Ernst (R) 39,895** Bruce Braley (D) 15,186 Colorado Cory Gardner (R) 20,932 **Mark Udall (D) 26,274** North Carolina Thom Tillis (R) 20,176 **Kay Hagan (D) 31,058** Alaska Dan Sullivan (R) 7,446 **Mark Begich (D) 12,084** Louisiana Bill Cassidy (R) 9,942 **Mary Landrieu (D) 23,952** Kansas Pat Roberts (R) 14,960 **Greg Orman (I) 33,965** Georgia David Perdue (R) 17,147 **Michelle Nunn (D) 30,896** Kentucky Mitch McConnell (R) 40,072 **Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) 41,546** So there you have it. Overall, the searches show Democrats being searched more in six of 10 key races, Republicans in three and an independent in one. Science, people. 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