Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who once said he hoped to be “the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses,” announced Friday he was suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. As it turns out, Perry is a lot like the Tim Tebow of the 2016 election cycle when it comes to his popularity on the Internet.
Last week marked a major turning point for the GOP candidate, who holds the record as the longest-serving Texas governor. It was also a career changing week for Tebow, an NFL quarterback and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner. Surprisingly, the big news out of both these stories, according Google Trends, has been the Internet’s reaction to ask: “What happened to Rick Perry?” and “What happened to Tim Tebow?”
People’s interest in “Rick Perry” as a GOP candidate increased six-fold after his short-lived campaign came to an end, much like the search and social buzz for “Tim Tebow” surged after news broke that the football star had been released by the Philadelphia Eagles.
While Google data does show a big spike, the sudden interest in Perry’s failed campaign has been relatively small when compared to that of the top five GOP candidates this 2016 cycle, which has seen a Republican primary dominated by one candidate: real-estate mogul Donald Trump. Explore how the rest of the 2016 GOP candidates rank on Google Trends.
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