Election Tech 2016:based on social data analysis

In the days before the Iowa Caucus Twitter data reveals that presidential candidates are talking about the economy, foreign policy, and themselves.

Perhaps in reaction to attacks questioning his experience, @RealBenCarson Tweeted about foreign policy more than any other candidate.

Our charts were produced with assistance from political scientist William P. Stodden, using Microsoft Excel.

We looked at the top ten words uttered (a single Tweet can contain multiple keywords 'utterances') by the candidates and broke down those utterances by category. Here is what we found. The topics all candidates discussed most frequently on Twitter were the campaigns themselves, foreign policy, domestic policy, the economy, and other keywords unrelated to politics or the campaign.

• @TedCruz is the only candidate that almost exclusively discussed his campaign, as opposed to any of the other category areas.
• For most of the leading Republican candidates, the campaign itself is the plurality category. Meaning, these candidates Tweeted about their own campaigns more than any other single topic.
• In the keyword cluster of recent utterances, @TedCruz's campaign was mentioned in 85% of Twitter keywords, followed by @RealDonaldTrump at 81%, @MarcoRubio at 74%, @John Kasich at 71%, and @JebBush 53%.
• In contrast, @HillaryClinton Tweeted about her campaign 44% of time time, followed by @BernieSanders at 27%, and @MartinOMalley at 23%.
• Democratic candidates also Tweeted about domestic policy and the economy more than Republican candidates.
• Republican candidates Tweeted about foreign policy more than any Democratic candidates, but also Tweeted about their own campaigns more than any of the Democratic candidates.Perhaps in reaction to attacks questioning his experience, 
• @RealBenCarson Tweeted about foreign policy more than any other candidate.

Our charts were produced with assistance from political scientist William P. Stodden, using Microsoft Excel.