"I don't care what you say about me as long as you spell my name right." Typically referring to show business and more recently social media influencers, media visibility and even notoriety is outweighing accuracy, integrity and authenticity in 2022 politics. This is most relevant to the campaigns of Herschel Walker, running for Senate in Georgia; Kari Lake, Senate candidate in Arizona; J.D. Vance, an Ohio Senate candidate; and Mehmet Oz, who's taking on the equally public John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate race. A Google Search analysis published by MediaVillage.com based on research conducted by The Myers Report uncovers interesting and potentially predictive results.
If pure publicity is an accurate and predictive measure of political viability, which it probably is not, then The Myers Report Google search might offer insights on the results of several races pending in the upcoming November 8 election. As a Media Ecologist, Jack Myers, founder of The Myers Report, argues that the emergence of Donald Trump and increase in "personality politics represents an all-to-realistic comparison to the effective use of media as a catalyst for the rise of totalitarian leaders. Our Google search provides insights on how effectively candidates who are facing off in key races use media to advance their names, establish their messages and influence voters."
Here are The Myers Report results of a simple Google search as of October 31 at 7:00 p.m. ET. Results are rounded to the nearest thousands and are subject to change, even minute-by-minute based on breaking news coverage (positive and negative). Some results are intuitive and expected, with election eve celebrations projected for Ron Johnson in Wisconsin while gubernatorial candidates Tony Evers and Tim Michels are in a toss-up. Independent Betsy Johnson looks like a winner in Oregon with Catherine Cortez-Mastro gaining a surprisingly easy victory in Nevada.
The Google results suggest important and potentially resounding Democratic wins in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Ohio, with Republicans retaining Senate seats in Wisconsin, Florida and North Carolina. Our data suggests the Congressional run by Marjorie Taylor-Greene is over while the ascendency of Kari Lake in Arizona may be just beginning, although Mark Kelly appears likely to hold Arizona's Senate seat. In the pivotal state of Georgia, our data suggests that the political careers of both Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock may be at an end. In an important local race for our New York readers, Democrat Max Rose appears to be a sure winner against Nicole Malliotakis in a newly gerrymandered district, while the race for Governor may be a squeaker for incumbent Katy Hochul.
Impressively, Max Rose is the leader in Google data results, generating 527 million results, followed by Utah's Mike Lee with 407 million results, Arizona's Mark Kelly at 368 million, Ohio's Tim Ryan with 231 million, and Wisconsin's Ron Johnson at 106 million. Among the contests we searched, the most surprising underperformances were J.D. Vance in Ohio with only 16 million results, Mehmet Oz at 11 million, Marco Rubio opponent Val Demings with only 1.9 million and Pennsylvania's Doug Mastriano with only 1.5 million.
On election night and the days after as ballots are counted and inevitable controversies arise, we can look back to see if press visibility and publicity, as measured by Google search results, proved prescient, irrelevant, or both. Most importantly, VOTE.