Maryland 2011 Congressional District 4      Click for larger view

OK, so I took an early look at this race back in late April. I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how the candidates are growing their Twitter accounts and see what good or bad social media trends I am noticing from the accounts. Keep in mind it is still very early and I have yet to break down the engagement numbers as of today. This is really more a reference for those interested in this very interesting Congressional race in Maryland.

Click the “Official Campaign Twitter Account” links to view the social media page

Notes – Anthony Brown has a significant follower advantage, but keep in mind many of those followers came to him during his bid for Governor in 2014. Joseline Pena-Melnyk and Glen Ivey lead everyone with the adding of new followers. They should both look at that as a positive over the past 45 days. Glad to see Dereck Davis with an actual Twitter account this time around.

Negatives –

Glen Ivey: I am never a big fan of underscores in a Twitter name. Try typing a tweet about someone with an underscore in their name on your iPhone and you will understand why. I would also like to see more activity from the account. There are periods of time where there is just no news coming from that social media account.

Ingrid Turner: Changed your Twitter handle since the last evaluation. It also took some time to update that change on your campaign website (I will say that I am glad it is corrected now). Hopefully that will be the last change to the Twitter ID.

Dereck Davis: Could not be happier to see you on Twitter. Now you just need to begin tweeting on a regular basis to attract followers. As of this post, no tweets since June 22nd.

Most of the candidates are active and providing useful information, so I recommend following them all for updates.

Here is a neat little bit of information that came out in the past week: MD-04: Ex-Lt. Gov. and 2014 gubernatorial nominee Anthony Brown brings us our first poll of the crowded Democratic contest for this safely blue seat. Brown’s survey from Fred Yang gives him a 42-20 lead over former Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey, with the other candidates each taking no more than 5 percent. It’s not a huge surprise that the well-known Brown would start out ahead, though Ivey isn’t exactly anonymous here. Ivey’s team quickly released a survey from Ron Lester that gave Brown a more-modest 33-27 edge.

Here is the Ballotpedia listing for this race:  http://ballotpedia.org/Maryland%27s_4th_Congressional_District_election,_2016

Good luck to all of the candidates.

Scott E