--- title: Republican Debate: Here's Which Candidate Won Google Searches description: During a 10-candidate debate Thursday, you can easily see who generated the most audience interest in Google search. canonical: https://time.com/3988239/gop-debate-google-donald-trump/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-07T03:18:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:08.327Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's Who Won Google Searches During the Debate og:description: The top five candidates who were searched during the Republican debate. og:url: https://time.com/3988239/gop-debate-google-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc94248a20941e8b/69885e4bcd1bbadfe26fc9f9/candidates-gop-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican 2016 presidential candidates debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Who Won Google Searches During the Debate twitter:description: The top five candidates who were searched during the Republican debate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc94248a20941e8b/69885e4bcd1bbadfe26fc9f9/candidates-gop-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Who Won Google Searches During the Debate  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 7, 2015 3:18 AM UTC  Republican 2016 presidential candidates, left to right, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, businessman Donald Trump, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Ohio Governor John Kasich debate at the first official Republican presidential candidates debate in Cleveland on August 6, 2015. Republican 2016 presidential candidates, left to right, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, businessman Donald Trump, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Ohio Governor John Kasich debate at the first official Republican presidential candidates debate in Cleveland on August 6, 2015.Brian Snyder—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 7, 2015 3:18 AM UTC The 2016 election is still far away, and it’s a crowded field of 17 candidates. But you can easily see who generated the most audience interest in the debates tonight, according to Google search trends. During the time of the debate, the top five candidates by searches were Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.  Rounding out the list, in order: John Kasich, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee. Earlier in the evening, Carly Fiorina dominated search traffic during the undercard debate.  General consensus on social media was that Fiorina won the “happy hour debate,” with this Google traffic as evidence. The most notable spike from a candidate besides Fiorina, however, was by Lindsey Graham. The surge in Google searches for Graham happened around the time he spoke about his personal background, when both of his parents died in his early twenties and he relied on Social Security. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3988239/gop-debate-google-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3988239/gop-debate-google-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Here's Who Won Google Searches During the Debate","datePublished":"2015-08-07T03:18:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:08.327Z","description":"During a 10-candidate debate Thursday, you can easily see who generated the most audience interest in Google search.","url":"https://time.com/3988239/gop-debate-google-donald-trump/","keywords":["debate","2016 Election topic","Google","Sen. Marco Rubio","ted cruz","jeb bush","Donald Trump","Lindsey Graham","Dr. Benjamin S. 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