Commentary

Elizabeth Warren Sports Highest Digital Content Engagement Of All Potential VP Picks

The GOP convention is just 13 days away, and the Democratics kick-start theirs in a mere 23. Neither major party candidate has decided on its Vice Presidential pick, and time is running out.

Previous short lists, however, are now a lot shorter.

Donald Trump’s list includes former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, among others.

As for Hillary Clinton, she has a strong potential VP field, which includes Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, HUD Secretary Julian Castro and Labor Secretary Tom Perez. There has also been buzz around New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and a few others.

Amobee Brand Intelligence gathered data, between May 28 and June 28, providing insights into how digital content has performed around some of these prospective VP candidates.

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Across both potential Republican and Democratic choices, it is not surprising that Elizabeth Warren has the most engagement around digital content. This can be largely attributed to her visible online presence attacking Donald Trump, as well as her time on the campaign trail with Secretary Clinton.

In fact, Amobee found that there was 4x more digital content engagement around a Warren Vice Presidency than around a Tim Kaine one. While this might illustrate the excitement generated by Sen. Warren, the Clinton campaign will be careful not to pick a candidate who can outshine her name at the top of the ticket.

Sen. Kaine, who is also the former Governor of Virginia, is a self-styled “boring” guy, which could serve the Clinton campaign in avoiding incendiary remarks, while also enticing moderates in his important swing state of Virginia.

Amobee also found that while sentiment around Warren’s VP candidacy was widely neutral (69%), it was more negative (22%) than positive (9%). Conversely, Sen. Kaine had 17% positive sentiment contrasted with 11% that was negative.

(Clinton is also aware how critical it is to make more Democratic inroads in the Senate. If she selects a U.S. senator, the governor of that state will pick his or her replacement. Both Brown and Warren come from states, Ohio and Massachusetts, respectively, with Republican governors.)

On the Republican side, no one candidate shines as bright as Elizabeth Warren. Using Warren as the benchmark, Newt Gingrich generated the most engagement among GOP possibles, with 25% that of Warren's. Gov. Christie was close with 23% and Sens. Corker and Sessions were at 17%.

Of the potential GOP VP candidates only one, Sen. Sessions, had more positive (12%) sentiment than negative (11%).

What seems clear is that whoever ends up as the GOP nominee will likely serve as no more than a sidekick, extending a hand to disaffected Republican leaders. On the Democratic side, however, Hillary Clinton has a number of different choices that will bring varying degrees of excitement, poise and specific demographic and/or geographic support.

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