US Senate Twitter Rankings: McCain, Sanders, Reid, Paul, Grassley

More than 85 senators maintain official U.S. Senate Twitter accounts with John McCain touting the most followers; Marco Rubio has the most followers among senators with non-governmental Twitter accounts

Do you follow your U.S. Senators on Twitter?

The answer for most Americans is probably ‘no.’

While the number is growing, only a small fraction of U.S. residents currently use Twitter (just 15 percent of Internet users according to a 2012 Pew study).

However, nearly all members of the nation’s upper legislative chamber do maintain an official government Twitter account.

And who is the leader of the biggest pack?

A Smart Politics review of U.S. Senate official Twitter accounts finds that as of mid-day October 1st, 86 U.S. Senators maintain government Twitter accounts run by themselves, their staff, or a combination of the two, with John McCain out in front by hundreds of thousands of followers over his closest colleague.

The former Republican presidential nominee from Arizona leads the pack by more than one and a half million followers at 1.75 million, although it should be noted that a recent report found that on average 38 percent of the followers of U.S. Senators on Twitter are ‘fake’ (spam or inactive accounts).

The study estimated nearly double that amount of McCain’s followers are fake (68 percent), but even if that is true, the senior senator from Arizona still leads his next closest colleague by several hundred thousand ‘real’ followers.

After McCain comes independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont at #2 (116,806 followers), with Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada at #3 (65,678), Tea Party Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky at #4 (59,073), and long-serving GOPer Chuck Grassley of Iowa at #5 (51,609) who has personally (and famously) taken to his Twitter account on occasion to criticize Barack Obama and his Democratic colleagues with questionable grammar (even by Twitter standards).

Rounding out the Top 10 are Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma at #6, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York at #7, Republican John Cornyn of Texas at #8, and Democrats John Kerry of Massachusetts and Mark Warner of Virginia at #9 and #10 respectively.

Those with the smallest U.S. Senate Twitter followings represent the nation’s least populated states with the bottom five senators coming in at less than 1,000 followers:

· Republican John Hoeven of North Dakota with 598.
· Republican Mike Enzi of Wyoming with 610.
· Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware with 695.
· Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho with 920.
· Retiring Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota with 977.

McCain and Sanders are not only the most followed U.S. Senators on this social media platform, but also rank among its most frequent tweeters.

Texas Republican John Cornyn leads the way with he and his staff issuing 7,425 tweets through Monday followed by Sanders at #2 (4,758), and McCain at #3 (4,018).

Rounding out the list of the Top 10 most frequent tweeters are Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma at #4, GOPer Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas at #5, Republican Rob Portman of Ohio at #6, Democrat Mark Begich of Alaska at #7, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa at #8, Democrat Daniel Inouye of Hawaii at #9, and GOPer Roy Blunt of Missouri at #10.

Four senators do not maintain a Twitter account of any kind: Republican Jim Risch (ID) and retiring Democrats Jeff Bingaman (NM), Herb Kohl (WI), and Jim Webb (VA).

Another 10 senators do not maintain a governmental Twitter account but use a private or campaign account: Democrats Max Baucus (MT), Al Franken (MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Amy Klobuchar (MN), and Jon Tester (MT) and Republicans Kelly Ayotte (NH), Saxby Chambliss (GA), Jim DeMint (SC), Johnny Isakson (GA), and David Vitter (LA).

At the top of the list for senators with the most followers on their private or campaign Twitter accounts are Tea Party favorites Marco Rubio of Florida (156,451) and Jim DeMint of South Carolina (138,166) – the only two such members eclipsing the 100,000 mark.

Minnesota Democrat Al Franken is next at #3 (96,491) followed by Claire McCaskill of Missouri at #4 (77,803), Scott Brown of Massachusetts at #5 (48,007), Kirsten Gillibrand of New York at #6 (46,470), Barbara Boxer of California at #7 (39,482), Orrin Hatch of Utah at #8 (33,476), John Thune of South Dakota at #9 (26,774), and Rand Paul of Kentucky at #10 (19,439).

McCaskill, Brown, Gillibrand, and Hatch all face reelection this cycle.

On the other end of the spectrum, the least followed non-governmental Twitter accounts are held by Wyoming Republican John Barrasso with just 30 followers and Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse with 127.

Official U.S. Senator Twitter Accounts by Number of Followers

Rank	Senator	State	Party	Tweets	Followers
1	John McCain	AZ	GOP	4,018	1,754,092
2	Bernie Sanders	VT	Ind	4,758	116,806
3	Harry Reid	NV	Dem	1,535	65,678
4	Rand Paul	KY	GOP	638	59,073
5	Chuck Grassley	IA	GOP	2,108	51,609
6	Tom Coburn	OK	GOP	635	48,204
7	Chuck Schumer	NY	Dem	1,494	36,280
8	John Cornyn	TX	GOP	7,425	30,796
9	John Kerry	MA	Dem	373	30,673
10	Mark Warner	VA	Dem	1,633	30,151
11	Joe Lieberman	CT	Ind-Dem	684	25,903
12	Bill Nelson	FL	Dem	347	25,130
13	Sherrod Brown	OH	Dem	660	21,676
14	Scott Brown	MA	GOP	507	21,460
15	Robert Menendez	NJ	Dem	1,770	19,509
16	Roy Blunt	MO	GOP	1,900	18,812
17	Susan Collins	ME	GOP	511	18,774
18	Barbara Boxer	CA	Dem	881	18,683
19	Lindsey Graham	SC	GOP	1,683	18,345
20	Dick Durbin	IL	Dem	1,383	18,141
21	Rob Portman	OH	GOP	2,168	18,008
22	Mark Udall	CO	Dem	1,732	16,334
23	Richard Burr	NC	GOP	869	14,712
24	Dick Lugar	IN	GOP	1,368	14,598
25	Jeff Merkley	OR	Dem	784	13,610
26	Kay Bailey Hutchinson	TX	GOP	2,309	13,501
27	Pat Toomey	PA	GOP	1,016	13,388
28	Mike Lee	UT	GOP	1,707	13,345
29	Lisa Murkowski	AK	GOP	1,538	13,069
30	Mark Kirk	IL	GOP	1,799	12,459
31	Jeff Sessions	AL	GOP	1,228	12,427
32	Barbara Mikulski	MD	Dem	1,364	11,982
33	Jon Kyl	AZ	GOP	146	11,362
34	Ben Cardin	MD	Dem	1,234	11,312
35	Bob Corker	TN	GOP	648	10,772
36	John Boozman	AR	GOP	741	10,425
37	Ron Wyden	OR	Dem	459	10,176
38	Ben Nelson	NE	Dem	695	9,893
39	Kay Hagan	NC	Dem	1,563	9,656
40	John Thune	SD	GOP	452	8,799
41	Ron Johnson	WI	GOP	597	8,765
42	Lamar Alexander	TN	GOP	410	8,538
43	Mark Begich	AK	Dem	2,121	8,081
44	Frank Lautenberg	NJ	Dem	1,168	8,061
45	Debbie Stabenow	MI	Dem	640	8,009
46	Daniel Inouye	HI	Dem	1,989	7,668
47	Marco Rubio	FL	GOP	701	7,657
48	Tom Harkin	IA	Dem	1,446	7,538
49	Michael Bennet	CO	Dem	540	7,495
50	Patrick Leahy	VT	Dem	1,004	7,222
51	Patty Murray	WA	Dem	1,192	7,214
52	Tom Udall	NM	Dem	846	6,758
53	Jeanne Shaheen	NH	Dem	1,463	6,722
54	Jerry Moran	KS	GOP	1,170	6,617
55	Bob Casey	PA	Dem	290	6,521
56	Sheldon Whitehouse	RI	Dem	635	6,516
57	Carl Levin	MI	Dem	258	6,376
58	Richard Shelby	AL	GOP	49	6,283
59	Dianne Feinstein	CA	Dem	369	6,212
60	Olympia Snowe	ME	GOP	206	6,158
61	Jay Rockefeller	WV	Dem	1,609	6,142
62	Dan Coats	IN	GOP	873	6,083
63	Joe Manchin	WV	Dem	512	6,066
64	Mitch McConnell	KY	GOP	1,474	5,540
65	Richard Blumenthal	CT	Dem	884	5,527
66	John Barasso	WY	GOP	650	5,181
67	James Inhofe	OK	GOP	3,087	5,125
68	Pat Roberts	KS	GOP	409	4,726
69	Mary Landrieu	LA	Dem	657	4,409
70	Tom Carper	DE	Dem	1,376	4,293
71	Mike Johanns	NE	GOP	501	3,913
72	Tim Johnson	SD	Dem	831	3,692
73	Roger Wicker	MS	GOP	533	3,374
74	Dean Heller	NV	GOP	784	3,320
75	Orrin Hatch	UT	GOP	636	3,051
76	Maria Cantwell	WA	Dem	52	3,019
77	Claire McCaskill	MO	Dem	1,236	2,905
78	Daniel Akaka	HI	Dem	321	2,337
79	Mark Pryor	AR	Dem	406	2,233
80	Jack Reed	RI	Dem	397	1,921
81	Thad Cochran	MS	GOP	81	1,239
82	Kent Conrad	ND	Dem	665	977
83	Mike Crapo	ID	GOP	576	920
84	Chris Coons	DE	Dem	829	695
85	Mike Enzi	WY	GOP	145	610
86	John Hoeven	ND	GOP	7	598

Data compiled by Smart Politics on mid-day, October 1, 2012 for official U.S. Senate Twitter accounts only. Excludes private or reelection campaign Twitter accounts.

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