The news media cranked up the dial on Democratic primary campaign coverage last week. According to data from the TV News Archive, which splits TV news into 15-second clips,1 the three cable news networks we monitor — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — collectively mentioned the candidates’ full names in 6,114 clips last week.2 That’s a 72 percent increase from the previous week, when the candidates were mentioned 3,547 times.
Nearly every candidate was mentioned more often last week
How often each Democratic candidate was mentioned each week in news programming on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, counted by the number of 15-second clips that include each person’s full name
| Number of Clips | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Week of June 2 | Week of June 9 | ||
| Joe Biden | 1,706 | 2,642 | ||
| Bernie Sanders | 341 | 894 | ||
| Elizabeth Warren | 414 | 782 | ||
| Pete Buttigieg | 191 | 366 | ||
| Kamala Harris | 194 | 333 | ||
| Beto O’Rourke | 92 | 209 | ||
| Cory Booker | 129 | 144 | ||
| Bill de Blasio | 42 | 92 | ||
| Amy Klobuchar | 40 | 85 | ||
| Kirsten Gillibrand | 89 | 83 | ||
| Julian Castro | 9 | 75 | ||
| Steve Bullock | 12 | 66 | ||
| Eric Swalwell | 44 | 53 | ||
| John Hickenlooper | 63 | 46 | ||
| Tim Ryan | 36 | 43 | ||
| Andrew Yang | 5 | 42 | ||
| Seth Moulton | 47 | 38 | ||
| John Delaney | 45 | 30 | ||
| Jay Inslee | 18 | 29 | ||
| Michael Bennet | 18 | 24 | ||
| Marianne Williamson | 11 | 21 | ||
| Tulsi Gabbard | 1 | 9 | ||
| Mike Gravel | 0 | 8 | ||
| 3,547 | 6,114 | |||
Joe Biden has commanded much of the attention ever since he declared his candidacy, and that didn’t change last week. While their rankings have changed a bit from week to week, the same five candidates (Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg) have been at the top of the most-mentioned list every week since early May. As we head into the first Democratic primary debates, we’ll be watching to see if anyone else can break into that group, so stay tuned!
Check out the data behind this series and check back each week for an update on which candidates are getting the most coverage on cable news.