Analysis

Spheres of Hillfluence report: Who influences Congress?

February 10, 2025
Penta Insights
Stakeholder, Insights, Government relations, U.S., Washington, D.C., Intelligence, Public affairs
Spheres of Hillfluence report: Who influences Congress?
5:03

Welcome to Penta's new "Spheres of Hillfluence" report, a quarterly summation of who is influencing policymakers in Washington D.C., which topics are receiving the most attention, as well as an analysis on partisan divides as it relates to social media. Below is an analysis of Twitter/X data from the official and personal accounts of all Members of Congress from Q4 2024.

Who Influences Congress?

Please note that the "influencer score" referenced below examines the Twitter/X activity of relevant stakeholders to identify and map key individuals who influence a target group. This score is a composite metric that measures engagement with a target account's posts, factoring in original mentions, reposts, quote posts, and replies. 

Top 10, Republican Non-Governmental Influencers

Account Handle "Influencer" Score
Vivek Ramaswamy 451
Benny Johnson 234
Charlie Kirk 221
Collin Rugg 198
Greg Price 184
Jack Posobiec 180
America First Legal 169
Riley Gaines 151
Clay Travis 131
Gunther Eagleman 121

Top 10, Republican Media Influencers

Top 10, Democrat Media Influencers

Account Handle "Influencer" Score
Acyn (Sr. Digital Editor for Meidas Touch) 172
The New York Times 147
Washington Post 135
Aaron Rupar (journalist) 127
Associated Press 122
CNN 65
Jake Sherman (Punchbowl News founder) 58
The Hill 57
Politico 52
MSNBC 50

Which issues are top-of-mind?

 

Issue Number of Republican Tweets Number of Democrat Tweets Difference
Immigration 4,972 714 GOP +4,258
Healthcare 992 2,091 Dem +1,099
Crypto 520 226 GOP +294
Tariffs 198 267 Dem +69
AI 121 102 GOP +19

 

Focusing in...

  • Immigration remains a key messaging issue for both parties with distinct partisan bend. Republican posts highlight border security as a national security issue and closely link immigration to crime and public safety concerns nationwide. Democrats' posts emphasize immigrant rights with a focus on protecting Dreamers, asylum seekers, and refugees combined with the economic and cultural contributions of immigrant communities.

  • Healthcare posts showcase some bipartisan support for protecting Medicare and Medicaid and combating high costs of prescription drugs. However, the parties differ on the details. Democrats emphasize holding pharmaceutical companies accountable and expanding access through the Affordable Care Act, while Republicans favor market-driven solutions and private healthcare options.

Partisan Splits

How each party used X/Twitter in Q4 2024

Republicans Democrats
Number of accounts 487 Number of accounts 456
Number of tweets 88,259 Number of tweets 60,145
Tweets per Account 181 Tweets per Account 132

Most active accounts

Republicans Democrats
Account Number of tweets Account Number of tweets
Nancy Mace
(South Carolina Representative personal account)		 2144 Jim Costa
(California Representative)		 1002
Elise Stefanik
(New York Representative)		 2119 Maxwell Frost
(Florida Representative)		 694
Claudia Tenney
(New York Representative)		 2051 Rohit Khanna
(California Representative)		 535
Chip Roy
(Texas Representative)		 1462 Kathy Castor
(Florida Representative)		 501
Anna Paulina Luna
(Florida Representative)		 1424 Sean Casten
(Illinois Representative)		 496
Derrick Van Orden
(Wisconsin Representative)		 1257 Sheldon Whitehouse
(Rhode Island Senator)		 462
Don Bacon
(Nebraska Representative official account)		 1204 Eli Crane
(Arizona Representative)		 458
Don Bacon
(personal account)		 1197 Jimmy Panetta
(California Representative)		 447
Rick Scott
(Florida Senator)		 1167 Brian Schatz
(Hawaii Senator)		 429
Nancy Mace
(official account)		 1142 Don Beyer
(Virginia Representative)		 429