--- title: Republican Debate: Here's What Social Media Said Ahead of It description: Donald Trump was the center of the conversation in the days leading up to Saturday's Republican presidential debate, according to data from social media. canonical: https://time.com/4210919/republican-debate-social-media-new-hampshire/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-07T02:17:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:35.260Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's What Social Media Said Ahead of the Republican Debate og:description: Donald Trump was the center of the conversation. og:url: https://time.com/4210919/republican-debate-social-media-new-hampshire/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta467bcd14a13000b/69887c7e524fc0dc01df6a1c/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4128 og:image:height: 2322 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Social Media Said Ahead of the Republican Debate twitter:description: Donald Trump was the center of the conversation. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta467bcd14a13000b/69887c7e524fc0dc01df6a1c/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Social Media Said Ahead of the Republican Debate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 7, 2016 2:17 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump walks on stage during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump walks on stage during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. David Goldman—AP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 7, 2016 2:17 AM UTC Donald Trump was the center of the conversation in the days leading up to [Saturday’s Republican presidential debate](http://time.com/4210925/republican-debate-new-hampshire-eighth-abc/), according to data from social media. Trump was the most searched candidate on Google and the most talked about among Twitter users in the days and hours leading up the debate. His share of the conversation Saturday on Twitter (46.7%) more than doubled that of the other candidates. Sen. Marco Rubio (18.3%) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (8.1%) saw a rise in mentions on Saturday, while talk about Sen. Ted Cruz (17.1%) and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson (4.3%) saw a decline over the course of the week leading up the debate. A similar change in momentum occurred on Google, with Trump leading and Rubio and Bush gaining while the number of searches related to Cruz and Carson dropped. The most-searched issue across America and in New Hampshire leading up to the debate was gun control. During the debate, Google reported that searches of “Is Ben Carson still running for President?” rose. > [](https://twitter.com/GoogleTrends/status/696145200880750592) The debate in New Hampshire is days before the state’s primary. Social media data, particularly in-state Twitter conversation, was [somewhat predictive of the results at the Iowa caucuses](http://time.com/4203742/iowa-caucus-twitter-data/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4210919/republican-debate-social-media-new-hampshire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4210919/republican-debate-social-media-new-hampshire/"},"headline":"Here's What Social Media Said Ahead of the Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-02-07T02:17:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:35.260Z","description":"Rubio and Bush were on the rise, while Cruz and Carson saw a decline","url":"https://time.com/4210919/republican-debate-social-media-new-hampshire/","keywords":["Debates","Social Media","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta467bcd14a13000b/69887c7e524fc0dc01df6a1c/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta467bcd14a13000b/69887c7e524fc0dc01df6a1c/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Donald Trump","caption":"Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump walks on stage during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H.","creditText":"David Goldman—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/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4210919/republican-debate-social-media-new-hampshire/","name":"Here's What Social Media Said Ahead of the Republican Debate"}}]}] ```