The 2016 Republican primary campaign on Twitter: Issues and ideological positioning for the profiles of Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump

Abstract

The 2016 Republican primaries, marked by Trump´s controversial remarks and the dialectical confrontations between contenders, were mirrored on Twitter. This social network became the arena in which the candidates were able to express their views on different aspects and share with their potential voters both their concerns and the issues that would be the core of their electoral program if they were elected as the republican nominee. This paper analyzes the tweets published by the four best positioned candidates in the Iowa polls (Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump), whose Caucus marks the beginning of the presidential primaries and whose results usually indicate how the presidential race is going to evolve, in the months prior to the beginning of the process and examines the main elements on which their respective campaigns were based and the ideological lines traced by each one on key issues for the Republican electorate, among other issues. The results introduce some of the electoral promises with which the winner of the primaries convinced the US voters to reach the Presidency.