According to political pundits like Charles Krauthammer, there was no clear winner in Tuesday night's GOP debate on CNN.
However, one candidate received a spike in social media followers as Twitter announced which 2016 candidate picked up the most new followers during the debate.
The surprising winner? Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.).
Largest follower growth (all cands) in #GOPDebate:
1. @BernieSanders
2. @realDonaldTrump
3. @RealBenCarson
4. @marcorubio
5. @tedcruz
— Twitter Government (@gov) December 16, 2015
Sanders has a total of 1.09 million followers on Twitter. His Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton counts 4.9 million on the social media outlet.
Of the top nine GOP candidates, Trump's 5.3 million Twitter followers dwarfs the rest of the field. Dr. Ben Carson is second among Republican candidates with 1.7 million followers.
--
Follow the author of this story on Twitter and Facebook: