Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden may be gaining ground on President Donald Trump’s preferred platform — Twitter.
New data from online video analytics company Conviva shows Biden had more Twitter engagements — which include comments, likes, and retweets — than Trump. The presidential hopeful averaged 148,6000 engagements per post during the Sept. 14 to Oct. 13 period, while the tweeter-in-chief only reached 136,100 engagements per post.
While Trump has almost eight times as many followers on Twitter than Biden, the Democrat has been gaining followers at a faster rate over the last 2.5 months. And while Trump still gets more retweets, Biden is getting more likes.
Trump also still maintains a heavier presence on Instagram and Facebook, but Biden has gained more followers on Instagram than Trump over the last two months. Still, Facebook seems likely to remain more of Trump’s domain both in terms of engagements and followers.
Social media can be a way to reach younger voters, and while traditionally not the largest voting demographic, 63 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds surveyed said they will "definitely be voting" in the upcoming election according to a Harvard Kennedy School poll. About 47 percent of the demographic had the same response when they were surveyed around the same time in 2016.
Trump’s use of social media political advertising had also been widely credited for helping him win the presidency in 2016. However, Biden seems to be matching Trump dollar for dollar on Google and Facebook recently with Advertising Analytics estimating both candidates spending $50 million over the last month on digital ads for their respective campaigns, the New York Times reported.
Cheddar's Chloe Aiello has our cannabis year-in-review, breaking down how several states legalized adult recreational use and greenlit medicinal use in 2021. She noted that while a cannabis legalization and decriminalization bill was introduced in Congress this year, potential FDA involvement in the industry, as well as a 25 percent excise tax, killed any chance the bill had of moving forward. Aiello also speculated that some form of cannabis reform could be rolled out in 2022, as the midterm elections draw closer.
Jim Worden, Chief Investment Officer at Wealth Consulting Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the period between Christmas and New Year's is difficult to predict due to a lack of institutional volume, with the Omicron variant adding even more uncertainty on Wall Street.
Prices at the pump this year reached a seven-year high, and a new forecast from GasBuddy shared with CNN predicts that gas prices will only continue to rise in 2022 and that the national average could even reach $4.00 a gallon; however, analysts at GasBuddy say anything could happen when it comes to gas prices in the future, as the pandemic has made it difficult to make any predictions about the economy. Consumer Energy Alliance federal policy advisor Michael Zehr joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
David Stryzewski, CEO of Sound Planning Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says that some of the major stock positions are getting the most lift to the upside as the major indexes climb higher to begin the week.
