Who do Pennsylvania state politicians follow on Twitter?
Recently, we looked at who Michigan state politicians follow on Twitter. This week, for our ongoing series to uncover the voices that state legislators follow, we tracked down the Twitter accounts of legislators and important state officials of the Great Lake State to see who they followed. We looked at members of the Michigan state legislature and who they (or their staff) at one point clicked follow on.
As one of the most popular social media platforms, citizens and political professionals alike use Twitter to share and get their news. Users receive much of this content from the accounts they follow and, luckily for our purposes, the list of followed accounts is public. (A note on Threads, we’re monitoring its adoption, but so far it seems that the political conversation is still mostly on Twitter).
We downloaded all the accounts that officials followed and uncovered some preliminary conclusions below, but if you’re interested in conducting your own analysis or seeing how followed your own Twitter account might be, you can access the 500 most followed accounts with the button above.
Our Findings
Now that you’ve taken a look at the data, let’s delve into some of our observations.
Pennsylvania has a relatively low Twitter presence in the legislature when compared to the states that we’ve studied so far. There were 194 legislators with at least one account out of the 253 in the General Assembly - 76%. This is in comparison to 80% in New Jersey and above 90% in Massachusetts and New York.
Media Influence
In many of our previous state analyses, we’ve seen that some of the most popular accounts followed by elected officials belong to other state political figures. For example, in Delaware, accounts managed by state departments and elected officials made up many of the top ten most popular accounts. However, in Pennsylvania, we witness a different trend.
Impressively, three external news agencies have managed to enter the top ten accounts followed by state elected officials. PCN, PoliticsPA, and MyPLS occupy spots three, seven, and nine. Additionally, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star news agency is currently the eleventh most followed account amongst state senators and representatives.
The implications of this data analysis are incredibly interesting. Firstly, the results show that elected officials in Pennsylvania recognize the value of up-to-date information. The popularity of news agencies shows that officials strive to be well-informed about important events and the opinions of those they represent. Secondly, these results indicate that media is very powerful in Pennsylvania. Due to the large number of legislators who follow their feeds, news agencies may have the ability to influence the actions and choices of elected officials through the developing stories and polling data they choose to cover.
Party Lean
Historically, Pennsylvania has been a Purple State, with electoral votes going to candidates from different political parties over the last few Presidential elections. Similarly, the party in control of the state senate and house has the potential to change each election season. Both of these occurrences are representative of the varying and ever-evolving political opinions of the citizenry.
From our analysis, we’ve learned that both the State Republican and Democratic Parties have large Twitter followings. PaHouseDems is the second most followed account, PaSenateDems is in eighth place, PAHouseGOP occupies the twelfth spot, and PASenateGOP is in eighteenth place. In other words, accounts officially linked to political parties are incredibly popular amongst Pennsylvania’s politicians.
The key takeaway from these results is that political party allegiance is high in Pennsylvania’s digital world. In addition to the large number of officials that follow party accounts, further evidence of extreme partisanship can be seen in the political affiliations of each account’s follower base. For example, PaHouseDems is followed by 85% of Democratic politicians and only 22% of Republican officials. A similar trend is evident within PAHouseGOP, which is followed by 85% of Republican Politicians and only 36% of Democratic leaders. The vast statistical differences between followers from each party indicate that state politicians are incredibly loyal to their own respective parties. This can significantly lessen the likelihood of cooperation and compromise between the two parties in the State House or Senate.
Accounts in the top 500 with the greatest Republican lean in its elected follows
Accounts in the top 500 with the greatest Democratic lean in its elected follows
Gubernatorial Gains
Governor Josh Shapiro’s professional Twitter is the account followed by the greatest number of state Representatives and Senators. Impressively, large portions of both parties follow this relatively new account. In total, 74% of all Pennsylvania State elected officials follow the account. In terms of party affiliation, 58% of Republicans and 83% of Democrats are followers. Additionally, Governor Shapiro’s personal account, JoshShapiroPA, is currently in fifth place for the greatest number of elected official followers.
Interestingly, both of Governor Shapiro’s accounts are significantly more popular than those of his predecessor. Presently, Tom Wolf’s professional and personal accounts are in spots twenty-nine and one hundred ninety-seven. Additionally, fewer politicians from both parties follow his accounts. For example, GovernorsOffice, his official account, was only followed by 56% of Democrats and 26% of Republicans - although this could also be reflective of new members only following the current governor.
These unique findings could be indicative of a variety of phenomena. Firstly, the greater political diversity of the followers may imply that both Republicans and Democrats are more supportive of Governor Shapiro. Secondly, a stronger congressional support base for the new Governor may lead to a greater probability of the Shapiro Administration achieving its legislative goals. Only time will tell if Shapiro’s virtual success will translate into bipartisan support.
How Legislata Helps
Regardless of how Pennsylvanians utilize Twitter, there’s still plenty of information to keep up with. Luckily, Legislata has features to address this.
Legislata helps you stay on top of the content that underpins your political world. Manage your own information, stay on top of what’s happening in your networks, and get your message out–all in one convenient place.
With LegislataPRO, you can also turn your inbox into a hub of productivity (an ideal solution for elected officials inundated by constituent communications). You can sign up for a free account or schedule a demo to learn more.