• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 1, 2016

Google searches may not decide a Democratic or a Republican candidate, but they do provide insight into the candidates drawing the most interest from those in the primary and the caucus states.

iQuanti released data analyzing Google searches related to Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses for the Democratic and Republican parties in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.

The data might say more about Democratic and Republican voters then the candidates themselves. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders see the most popularity in searches for their respective parties across all states holding primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday, although Sanders sees the greatest popularity among Democrats in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. Trump is weakest in Tennessee.  

In January 2016, Trump peaked in Texas as the top-searched candidate with 725,270, up 2.13% compared with the prior month. Sanders followed with 474,380. Cruz took 343,490 searches on google.com, and Hillary Clinton rounded out the top four with 265,550.

For the Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders saw a slight surge ahead of Hillary Clinton beginning in December, with January his strongest month, seeing 170% month-over-month growth. Sanders led in searches during January 2016 in Massachusetts and Vermont with 275,700 and 59,110, respectively.

Cruz, who is the second-most searched Republican, follows Sanders. Marco Rubio in third for his party, surpassing Ben Carson in January, who has been in a steady decline in searches since November. The least-searched candidate is John Kasich, who has been in last place for the duration of the campaigns.  

In South Carolina, where Cruz and Marco Rubio nearly tied for the No. 2 spot in the Republican race, taking 22.5% and 22.3% of the votes, the data shows the strongest correlations. Trump took 32.5%.

The data also shows that searches in January 2016 on google.com show 101,220 for Trump, followed by 41,500 for Cruz and 40,170 for Rubio.