--- title: Democratic Debate: Here's Who Won Social Media description: After the third Democratic debate, here is the data on which candidates and moments generated the most conversation on social media. canonical: https://time.com/4156243/democratic-debate-top-social-moments/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-20T04:39:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:31:39.495Z article:section: Politics og:title: These Moments From the Democratic Debate Won Social Media og:description: After the third Democratic debate, here is the data on which candidates and moments generated the most conversation on social media. og:url: https://time.com/4156243/democratic-debate-top-social-moments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Dem 2016 Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Moments From the Democratic Debate Won Social Media twitter:description: After the third Democratic debate, here is the data on which candidates and moments generated the most conversation on social media. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Were The Top Democratic Debate Moments on Social Media  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 4:39 AM UTC  Bernie Sanders, left, Hillary Clinton, center, and Martin O’Malley take the stage for a Democratic presidential primary debate, Dec. 19, 2015, at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Bernie Sanders, left, Hillary Clinton, center, and Martin O’Malley take the stage for a Democratic presidential primary debate, Dec. 19, 2015, at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.Jim Cole—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 4:39 AM UTC With the third Democratic debate now wrapped up, here is the data on which candidates and moments generated the most conversation on social media. On Facebook, the top social moment was when Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley all criticized GOP frontrunner Donald Trump for his rhetoric about Muslims, according to data provided by the company. Trump is usually a social media juggernaut, and he has dominated Twitter conversations [in most Republican debates](http://time.com/4150216/republican-debate-donald-trump-twitter/). [Read More: The Democrats Clash in Final Debate of 2015](http://time.com/4155432/democratic-debate-third-data-breach/?xid=homepage) The top discussed topic on Facebook was ISIS, followed by Muslims and Islam, and then guns. As for candidates, Sanders won the Facebook conversation, but he tied Clinton in the Twitter conversation. According to data provided by Twitter, Sanders and Clinton each made up 44% of the Twitter chatter, while O’Malley trailed at 12%. The most tweeted moment from the debate was decidedly lighter than the winner on Facebook. On Twitter, users tweeted most about Clinton’s topical sign-off: “May the Force be with you.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4156243/democratic-debate-top-social-moments/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4156243/democratic-debate-top-social-moments/"},"headline":"These Were The Top Democratic Debate Moments on Social Media","datePublished":"2015-12-20T04:39:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:31:39.495Z","description":"\"May the force be with you\"","url":"https://time.com/4156243/democratic-debate-top-social-moments/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Bernie Sanders","Martin O'malley","Democratic debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dem 2016 Debate","caption":"Dem 2016 Debate","creditText":"Jim Cole—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4156243/democratic-debate-top-social-moments/","name":"These Were The Top Democratic Debate Moments on Social Media"}}]}] ```