Ron Paul (R-Tx.), a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, is the hands-down winner of the Google primary. In terms of Google searches, Mr. Paul is crushing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. While Mr. Paul’s online popularity is no secret, the difference between the number of Google searches for the Texas congressman and the number of Google searches for the other two top-tier candidates in the early voting states may reveal a lot about each candidate’s base of support.
Several months into the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Paul leads all the other GOP candidates in Google searches with 823,000 monthly searches (12-month average). Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann finishes in a close second with 673,000 monthly searches and Texas Governor Rick Perry pulls in 550,000 searches to take third place.
Pizza baron Herman Cain, who was once considered a frontrunner in the GOP race, brings in 246,000 searches to tie Mr. Romney. Although his number is likely to change as Google’s data takes into his account his surging popularity, Mr. Gingrich is only bringing 165,000 monthly searches.
Digesting the numbers at face value, Mr. Paul pulls in twice as many monthly Google searches as Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney combined. Although Mr. Gingrich’s numbers are likely to rise in the coming months as the GOP primaries and caucuses approach, Mr. Paul’s numbers are indicative of a consistent base of support.
The consistency of Mr. Paul’s base of support may prove to be helpful in Iowa as the Paul campaign makes the final push for votes in the Hawkeye State. Mr. Paul garnered 17 percent of the votes in the latest CNN/Time poll of likely Iowa GOP caucusgoers to grab third place.
While the Texas congressman sits behind Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney, Mr. Paul “has made five-point gains in New Hampshire and Iowa since October, bringing him to 17% percent support in each state,” Time’s Jay Newton-Small wrote Wednesday.
In addition to the Google primary, Mr. Paul has also won the Twitter primary. According to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, Mr. Paul is the most favorably discussed candidate on Twitter and blogs.
