Since most informed American citizens decide to get educated on political issues on the days preceding (or day of) the election they’re voting in, search engine trends weren’t able to tell us too much about the issue heat map until after the election was finished. Additionally, the search engine searches show what issues people cared enough about to search for results on.
The amount of searches dominated by the elections was nothing short of dominant; more than half of the searches were related to the election, making this central aspect of American democracy more popular than all but the most exceptional internet meme.
Many of the election searches were for generalized terms such as “live election coverage,” although many individuals searched for their news program of choice, knowing it would be covering the results. However, searches for specific candidates and issues were far more dominant.
So, what were the hot spots in the election? Several candidates for U.S. Senator made it to the list, including Florida’s Marco Rubio, Indiana’s Dan Coats, Pennsylvania’s Joe Toomey, Nevada’s Harry Reid, California’s Barbara Boxer, and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin — victors in their races — as well as Arkansas candidate Blanche Lincoln, Pennsylvania’s Joe Sestak, and Wisconsin candidate Russ Feingold, all of whom lost. Many searchers also used terms patterned as “[state-name] senate race.”
The U.S. House of Representatives also created many hot search terms. The names of the now former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and John Boehne, her replacement, were highly popular. House representatives, most notably Micehele Bachmann and Barney Frank, saw their share of searches.
Gubernatorial races were popular in select states, with candidates and governor-related search terms being popular in Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina, and Connecticut.
State propositions also some some notable searches, but none were quite so popular as California’s Prop 19, which has remained a hot search term even after results were announced.