The three most-named candidates all see increased attention from early summer into fallThe discussions of nearly all major presidential candidates grew over the three months studied, but inside the liberal-leaning Reddit community, the discussions of some candidates far outweighed others. Three candidates received more than 70,000 comments across the 3 months (May, June and September 2015), while the vast majority were mentioned in fewer than ten,000 comments.vii

Only one candidate seemed to accept an especially active subreddit dedicated to their campaign during the 3 months studied: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. As discussed below, the /r/SandersForPresident subreddit attracted tens of thousands of comments and prominently offered users the chance to engage with the campaign. Of all other subreddits dedicated to individual candidates, just those focused on Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) attracted any significant number of comments, and even then the number of comments naming a candidate in /r/RandPaul just amounted to about ii% of those in /r/SandersForPresident. Some candidates fifty-fifty attracted subreddits defended entirely to making fun of the candidate, and two subreddits dedicated to Donald Trump, /r/The_Donald and /r/donaldtrump, have argued over which is the real Trump 2022 subreddit, with one accusing the other of beingness run past Sanders supporters.

The discussions around the 3 candidates that received by far the most comments – Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and business mogul Donald Trump – offer a window into the kinds of conversation patterns that tin can take place on Reddit.

Bernie Sanders

Sanders mentioned in Reddit comments more than Clinton, Trump combinedThough Sanders was less well known by the public than Clinton and Trump during the time menstruum studied, he was mentioned in most 165,000 comments – more than Clinton (about 85,000) and Trump (almost 73,000) combined. The number of comments naming Sanders rose over fourth dimension, doubling between June (near 38,000) and September (almost 85,000).

One event that may have helped fuel the conversation around Sanders was an "Ask Me Annihilation" (AMA) session held by the candidate in May 2022 that attracted nearly 13,000 separate comments, far more than than the average of 60 comments for AMAs that month. That was conspicuously not the only driver of comments, as the high level of involvement in Sanders continued in June and roughly doubled past September, fifty-fifty without the AMA as a focus of attention.

/r/SandersForPresident RedditOne of the near popular subreddits for Sanders was ane dedicated to his presidential candidacy: /r/SandersForPresident. While at least v of the candidates in the report take name-specific subreddits devoted to them, Sanders' stands out. The candidate'due south subreddit received more than 200,000 comments overall in the three months studied, with more than 59,000 that mention any candidate past name. In addition to discussion, the aqueduct also serves as a place for grassroots organizing, as the imprint across the top includes links for users to volunteer for Sanders, to nourish Sanders events and to watch Sanders on television. The information available does not signal whether the subreddit was originally created by or as a function of his entrada, just it clearly serves as a pro-Sanders hub. Only four% of comments in /r/SandersForPresident were "downvoted," less than half the charge per unit we saw among comments from all subreddits (for more on downvoting, read hither).

Not all of the subreddits devoted to Sanders are supportive; at least 1 criticizes the Reddit community's focus on Sanders. Comments in this type of forum accounted for less than ane% of all comments about Sanders over the three months studied.

At that place is as well evidence of a highly engaged base of operations of commenters discussing Sanders. Near one-in-4 users (24%) who named Sanders in a annotate posted three or more comments naming him. This is a higher proportion of users leaving three or more comments than for any other candidate studied.

The Sanders miracle on Reddit echoes former bottom-known candidates who garnered attention or back up in digital platforms despite the fact that they did not accept every bit high a profile in traditional media. In 2011, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, though behind other Republican candidates in the polls and in mainstream media coverage, enjoyed somewhat more activity on Twitter – with more than than 1.1 meg tweets referencing his campaign, which ranked him fifth amid 8 Republican candidates and gave him a more than favorable tone in the Twitter conversation than any of the other candidates.

And dorsum in the 2003-04 primary season, before social media era became a major force in politics, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean attracted a digital-savvy activist base that marshalled web-based tools such as meetup.com to organize and talk over their candidate.

About one quarter of Reddit users who mention Sanders do so repeatedly Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton, the second-most discussed candidate on Reddit during the 3 months studied, was mentioned in about 85,000 comments. As with others, that number rose over time: In September, Clinton was named in 43,000 comments – near twice as many as May or June.

Dissimilar Sanders, whose campaign-specific subreddit attracted a great bargain of discussion about the candidate, Clinton's campaign and supporters practice not appear to employ a dedicated subreddit in the fashion that Sanders does. Of all the 350,000 comments that mentioned a candidate during the three months studied, just 61 appeared in a candidate-specific subreddit devoted to Clinton.

All the same, users who mentioned Clinton seemed to exist relatively active participants: 21% left three or more than comments naming her inside the three months, second merely to 24% of comments mentioning Sanders.

Donald Trump

More than half of comments naming Trump appear in non-political subredditsDonald Trump was named in most 73,000 comments on Reddit during the iii months studied, making him the third-most mentioned candidate.

The Reddit discussion about Donald Trump stands out for its rapid growth over time, jumping from just 8,000 in June – the month Trump announced his candidacy – to almost 64,000 in September. This eightfold increment outpaces the overall rise in the number of comments studied, which rose nearly 150% from June to September.

Not simply was there more discussion about Trump equally the campaign progressed – the scope of where he was being discussed broadened also. Generally, comments nigh the Autonomous candidates ranged across most subreddits, equally both Clinton and Sanders were discussed each calendar month in at to the lowest degree 300 of the 373 subreddits where candidates were mentioned most oftentimes. Comments naming Trump, however, rose from 146 in May to 268 in June and 355 in September.

Comments mentioning Trump also stand out for being more than probable to occur in full general information exchange subreddits such equally /r/AskReddit or the "Inquire Me Anything" forum. About 1-in-v of these comments (19%) appeared in these subreddits, 8 percentage points higher than comments continued to any other candidate.