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Tulsi Gabbard By the Numbers: Loved by the Right, Despised by the Left?
A new analysis shows the retiring Hawaii congresswoman has a highly unusual Twitter profile
Tulsi Gabbard must be loving the attention. Though polls show support for her longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination mired in the low single digits, the Hawaii congresswoman experienced an explosion in online tweet volume after Hillary Clinton was misquoted by the New York Times as saying Gabbard was being groomed by the Russians for a third-party bid. Clinton actually implied Gabbard, while still a favorite of the Russians, was being groomed by Republicans. And to that end, she might have a point.
According to an analysis of Twitter narratives conducted by MarvelousAI, Gabbard is unique among Democratic candidates in that much of her support comes from known conservative pundits and right-leaning tweeters, while left-leaning tweeters mostly dislike her. This anomaly in political alignment was true both before and after the Clinton story, with the latest controversy producing increased volume on both sides and changing the specifics of left-leaning criticism. Now Gabbard has said she won’t run for reelection to Congress at all, in order to focus on her run for the White House.
