Kasich entry into GOP race stirs minimal Facebook interest

Facebook traffic mirrored Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s low poll standing Tuesday.

Kasich became the 16th prominent Republican to announce he was running for the party’s presidential nomination. During the day of the announcement, he generated 261,000 interactions on Facebook and 156,000 people.

That’s low, compared to his rivals. And it reflects his low standing in national polls. Kasich needs to reach the top 10 to qualify for the August 6 Republican debate in Cleveland, and it looks like it’s going to be close.

While Facebook is not a factor in who debates, it does reflect who’s generating interest. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, for instance, had 679,000 people and 1.57 million interactions. Real estate mogul Donald Trump had 3.4 million people and 6.4 million interactions.

Other announcement day Republican results:

Chris Christie

482,000 unique people

803,000 interactions

Bobby Jindal

316,000 unique people

542,000 interactions

Jeb Bush

493,000 unique people

849,000 interactions

Rick Perry

422,000 unique people

763,000 interactions

Lindsey Graham

84,000 unique people

142,000 interactions

George Pataki

59,000 unique people

81,000 interactions

Rick Santorum

169,000 unique people

266,000 interactions

Mike Huckabee

458,000 unique people

814,000 interactions

Carly Fiorina

304,000 unique people

515,000 interactions

Ben Carson

847,000 unique people

1.5 million interactions

Marco Rubio

695,000 unique people

1.3 million interactions

Rand Paul

865,000 unique people

1.9 million interactions

Ted Cruz

2.1 million unique people

5.5 million interactions.

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Kasich entry into GOP race stirs minimal Facebook interest."