--- title: Republican Debate; Marco Rubio Won the Internet description: Marco Rubio upped his share of the chatter online during Saturday's Republican debate, according to Internet search and social media data. canonical: https://time.com/4211010/republican-debate-new-hampshire-social-media-final/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-07T04:31:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:26.725Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marco Rubio Drives Internet Chatter During Republican Debate og:description: Trump dominated, but Rubio led the rest of the pack og:url: https://time.com/4211010/republican-debate-new-hampshire-social-media-final/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt215141066fbb7420/69887c83a988caccb96b679d/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-27.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2020 og:image:height: 1136 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL GOP Debate Marco Rubio Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marco Rubio Drives Internet Chatter During Republican Debate twitter:description: Trump dominated, but Rubio led the rest of the pack twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt215141066fbb7420/69887c83a988caccb96b679d/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-27.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marco Rubio Drives Internet Chatter During 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 4:31 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio, left, and Donald Trump participate in the Republican presidential debate on Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio, left, and Donald Trump participate in the Republican presidential debate on Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. Nate Gowdy for TIME by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 7, 2016 4:31 AM UTC Marco Rubio upped his share of the chatter online during Saturday’s [Republican debate](http://time.com/4210983/republican-debate-barack-obama-incompetent/), according to Internet search and social media data. Donald Trump, as usual, hogged much of the spotlight with 29% share of the Twitter conversation, but Rubio lead among the rest of the pack at 18%-four points ahead of rival Ted Cruz. Rubio had a [good showing on social media leading up to the debate](http://time.com/4210919/republican-debate-social-media-new-hampshire/), managing to capture some of the momentum from Iowa to replace Cruz as the second most mentioned Republican on social media. While Trump was the most searched candidate in America, Rubio won out in Google searches from New Hampshire, which is holding its primary race on Tuesday. > [](https://twitter.com/GoogleTrends/status/696180886937559040) New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie may have scored points with voters on Saturday, as he experienced an uptick in follower growth on Twitter—second behind Trump. Among the highest number of mentions on Twitter came when the audience booed Trump after he told former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to be “quiet,” and Christie saying “There it is” in reference to [Rubio’s line about President Obama repeated four times](http://time.com/4210991/marco-rubio-gop-debate-new-hampshire/). > [](https://twitter.com/gov/status/696180384397131776) The Independent Journal Review’s Cheer Along tool—which [allows users to either cheer or dislike moments](http://cheeralong.com/#/) during the debate—showed much more dislikes (53%) than cheers (47%) Saturday. 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/4211010/republican-debate-new-hampshire-social-media-final/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4211010/republican-debate-new-hampshire-social-media-final/"},"headline":"Marco Rubio Drives Internet Chatter During Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-02-07T04:31:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:26.725Z","description":"Trump dominated, but Rubio led the rest of the pack","url":"https://time.com/4211010/republican-debate-new-hampshire-social-media-final/","keywords":["Debates","Tech","Social Media","2016 Election","Technology","Sen. 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