According to the degree of improvement of Social Media Influence (SMI), the winner of the June 27th Democratic Debate was Kamala Harris, followed by Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang.
In order to get some perspective, we have compared the ranking of the performance of candidates at the debate from first to tenth by SMI, on-line surveys, and search.
Table 1: Ranking by Candidate’s Debate Performance by a Variety of Methods
| SMI | Heavy (Survey) | Washington Examiner (Survey) | Google Search, during debate | Google Search, next day | |
| Harris | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Buttigieg | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Yang | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Williamson | 4 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 |
| Sanders | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| Gillibrand | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Biden | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Swalwell | 8 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 8 |
| Hickenlooper | 9 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 10 |
| Bennet | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 |
Source: ZettaCap, Heavy, Washington Examiner, and Google Trends
There are three different types of data in the table. SMI uses social media data. The next two entries, Heavy and Washington Examiner, are on-line surveys asking who won the debate. We specifically chose a left-leaning (Heavy) and right-leaning (Washington Examiner) survey sources to see if there was any difference. The last two refer to Google Search popularity during the debate and during a peak period from the next day to see how trends might have shifted post-debate when people search to find out more about a candidate.
It is important to highlight that SMI’s rankings are completely independent of the other forms of analysis — and that SMI provides similar yet unique insights.
As for qualitative (as opposed to the quantitative measures in the table) analysis, the left-leaning consensus seems to generally agree on Harris and Buttigieg having done well.
CNN pointed towards Harris and Buttigieg as the winners.
Vox highlighted Harris and Buttigieg as the winners.
Rolling Stone declared Harris the winner.
An honorable mention goes to Yang. His SMI performed well during and post-debate. Perhaps the largest plus for Yang is the fact that his SMI seems to be stabilizing at a higher level. In the average case, spikes occurring around a specific event are temporary, meaning the positive benefit does not stick. In the case of Yang, we have seen his SMI trying to stabilize at a higher level which is exactly what you would expect for a candidate starting a positive trend. So though he placed third in SMI terms during the June 27th debate, his post-debate strength looks impressive.
The biggest losers of the night seem to be Biden and Sanders. You have to recall that prior to the debates, they were clearly seen as being the front-runners and yet they did not perform well during the debates. According to SMI, they finished fifth (Sanders) and seventh (Biden).