The News in New Media

Month: November 2022

Mauna Loa Volcano Erupts In Hawai’i

November 30, 2022

Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano and one of the most active, is in the midst of its latest eruption, the first since 1984. The volcano is located in Hawai’i, on the “Big Island” of Hawai’i – in fact, it makes up the majority of the “Big Island’s” landmass, covering about half of the island.

Though geologists have learned that most output from Mauna Loa is non-explosive and tends toward more fluid lava flows, the current risk level is considered “Very High,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which has manned observation points and laboratories around Mauna Loa. The Guardian reports that more than 200,000 residents nearby have been warned to prepare for evacuation, should the flows begin to move in their direction.

USGS Map of The Big Island, Hawai’i. Mauna Loa is marked in the near-center of the island in red, while the smaller markers represent USGS monitoring areas.

Yet lava flows and potential property damage are not the only threat to Hawai’ian residents. The National Weather Service’s Honolulu page warns about “vog,” volcanic air pollution that contains dangerous components, and how to protect against this threat.

The eruption began on November 27 and continues to be active. The USGS relates that Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since its first documented (by Westerners) eruption in 1843, and it is in the “shield-building” stage, meaning that it is rapidly growing and adding to its overall size.

From Nov. 27 through today, Mauna Loa has been mentioned 127.4K times across platforms, with a surge on Nov. 28, when the news of the eruption broke in the continental U.S. The eruption began around 11:30 p.m. HST on Nov. 27, and prior to that time most of the content surrounding the volcano discussed weather and natural conditions – from the volcano beginning to rumble to even a winter weather alert atop the peak.

One of the top trends of dialogue is “rift zone,” noting the location of some of the volcanic fissures, with others wondering if this eruption is indicative of more increased activity around the Pacific’s famed “Ring of Fire.” However, the USGS reassures us that activity is normal, at least along the continental U.S.’s west coast:

While at this point it looks like the eruption will not account for any damage or loss of life due to the lava flows, it remains to be seen how the ash and “vog” will affect residents and other Pacific islanders. A carbon monitoring bot on Twitter indicates that carbon levels around Mauna Loa are consistently higher this year than past years, even without the eruption factoring in.

And for those of us who aren’t under immediate threat from the eruption, the videos and photos are truly awe-inspiring and a reminder of the sheer power of our planet’s geological forces. Reuters has shared a video of the eruption from a helicopter service on the island, and many other social media users have shared the video straight from the company itself:

Author: Kayleigh Jackson

Ticketmaster Under Scrutiny After Cancelling Taylor Swift Ticket Sales

November 18, 2022

It turns out Taylor Swift gave us all an easter egg in her hit song Bejeweled when she told us we might have to wait in line. After releasing her highly anticipated 10th studio album, Midnights (which we covered here), Swift surprised fans with an “Eras Tour”. This tour will have music from all of Swifts albums and span from March to August of 2023. This will be the first time Swift has been on tour since here Reputation tour in 2018, as her Loverfest tour was canceled due to COVID-19.

Fans were excited to buy tickets and were granted an opportunity to enlist in a “Verified Fan” presale hosted by Ticketmaster. This would allow fans to pick tour dates and if selected, allowed to purchase tickets early on Tuesday November 15th. Fans who weren’t selected were promised opportunities to purchase tickets through a presale for Capital One card holders or during the general sale which was supposed to be held Friday, November 18th.

On Tuesday, the 15th, fans eagerly logged onto Ticketmaster to buy their tickets. However, they were greeted with less than favroable circumstances. Lines for tickets were hours long and Ticketmaster ended up pausing the queue multiple times. Ticketmaster said that this was due to an unprecedented amount of people and bots entering the queue – both of which the verified fan presale intends to prevent. On the 15th, Ticketmaster released a statement saying that many tickets have been sold and they are trying to get through the queues as soon as possible, but that they will be delaying the Capital One presale.

After the Capital One presale, Ticketmaster then released the statement that would ultimately cause outrage by fans – there were no more tickets left and the general sale was canceled.

So who exactly is talking about Ticketmaster? The name of the company has been mentioned over 1.06 million times since November 14th and reached over 6.67 billion users. Unsurprisingly, the sentiments were 86% negative (386.89k mentions). The volume of these mentions reached a peak on the 15th of November (487,678 mentions). The primary platform users are discussing Ticketmaster is Twitter.

Users engaging in conversations surrounding Ticketmaster have been primarily users who identify as female (561.3k mentions) who reside in the United States (347.1k mentions). Top influencers include news sources, like The New York Times and CNN, as well as politicians like Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez and Senator Blumenthal who were critical of Ticketmaster as a monopoly.

Even, the Tenessee Attorney General announced in a tweet that they would be looking into this incident.

Other tweets focused on how large the news of this scandal was as it trended over more serious issues such as the recent attacks in Poland.

https://twitter.com/Pluto_Shmurda/status/1592615266953101312?s=20&t=bzdErj48gcVXQkfwXbe4Ww

Finally, some Swifites just made light of the situation by making jokes and lyric related puns.

While the controversy surrounding Ticketmaster is just beginning and certainly the star of the show right now, we must acknowledge that Swift still managed to break records with this ticket sale.

As always, the Social Media Listening Center will continue to monitor these conversations and report any updates.

Author: Michelle Brazeau

Artemis I Mission to Moon Launches

November 17, 2022

As Tuesday ticked into Wednesday, the rocket Artemis I launched out of Cape Canaveral, FL, for an unmanned mission to the moon. The mission launch had already been postponed due to fuel leaks during preliminary tests as well as Hurricane Ian, and again due to the looming Hurricane Nicole.

However, the long road to launch finally paid off as the craft lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in the wee hours of Wednesday. According to CNN, the vehicle consists of a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket topped by an Orion spacecraft capsule, which would break away from the rocket once they reached space. CNN also reports that not only did the launch go well, but the breakoff also succeeded and the Orion capsule is well on its way to the moon.

Take a look at the incredible moment the rocket took off in these Tweets:

Yet the launch was almost a no-go again, as the fuel tanks were filled despite leaks. A “red crew” was called in to tighten up the machinery and stop the leaks – even as the tanks were already full and the rocket felt “alive,” according to one member of the red crew. The crew had been specifically trained for this situation, as scary as it was, and they solved the problem to keep the launch on its latest schedule.

Naturally, after so long and so many aborted attempts, the anticipation for this launch online was sky-high – no pun intended.  NASA, the Artemis mission’s and Orion craft’s official Twitters, and the NASA Exploration Ground Systems Twitter (seen above) were some of the top outlets reporting on all stages of the launch, along with members of NASA’s leadership and administration, such as Jim Free. Media were also invited to experience the launch, and reporters on the space beat kept those of us awake at 1:45 a.m. up to speed on the mission.

These sources of information were among the 693.3K mentions of either the Artemis mission or NASA over the last week, with a major spike in traffic and discussion on Nov. 16, the day of the launch. Sentiment toward the mission was overwhelmingly positive, with 77.5% of all that dialogue being positive. Artemis I is the first step in the United States’ plan to have humans land on the moon again within the next 15 or so years. This spacecraft is manned only by mannequins, but the next mission is expected to have live astronauts on board as NASA works closer to that goal of returning humankind to the moon.

Photos from the Orion craft show the Earth’s surface, as well as one of those mannequins, the aptly-named Moonikan Campos:

Footage from outer space is always awe-inspiring, whether it’s from astronauts at the International Space Station or unmanned probes and rovers. This time-lapse of the voyage is no exception.

Orion is expected to travel a whopping 1.3 million miles, returning to Earth on Dec. 11. Based on how the craft fares, the current first crewed mission in the Artemis program is scheduled for 2024 – very soon, in the grand scheme of space travel. NASA also recently announced that Elon Musk’s SpaceX would work closely with the Artemis IV mission scheduled for landfall (moonfall?) in 2027.

Stay tuned to NASA’s social platforms for more updates on this exciting mission.

Author: Kayleigh Jackson

The Blood Bowl Begins

November 14, 2022

Every year, Clemson University and the University of South Carolina participate in a competition where students are encouraged to donate blood in the Blood Bowl.

The Blood Connection sponsors the event. The organization is the blood supplier for the Clemson community, providing blood exclusively throughout South Carolina communities. As blood donation is a critical part of saving lives, the Blood Bowl provides a way for students of the universities to help the local community while participating in the competition against their rivals.

Sprinklr Analytics helps pull data to analyze the reach of the topic, the trending conversations, and the sentiment around those topics.

After a quick search to analyze the Clemson Blood Bowl, the numbers state that there are 12 mentions and over a 300k reach. Out of these mentions, all of them were recorded as neutral. This data was pulled from Twitter and news articles sources, and all revolved around promoting the blood drive.

The current top influencers are the Twitter accounts of Clemson University @ClemsonUniv and the Blood Connection @BloodConnection. Since this week of promotion of blood donors within South Carolina has just begun, the data for 2022 is freshly accumulating on social media.

Clemson University has won the competition over the University of South Carolina in the past few years, and it will be interesting to follow who is able to promote its mission in an effective manner that motivates students to donate blood to their community.

Author: Louisa Glazunova

Georgia Election Results and Runoff

November 11, 2022

Over the past few weeks we have been monitoring conversations about the midterm elections. Most recently, we discussed the results for the races that happened in South Carolina. Today, we will we look at the results of the Georgia races and see what conversations are happening after people left the polls on Tuesday night. First let’s look at the results of the election in Georgia. We sourced the election results from Ballotpedia and The Associated Press.

Governor: The gubernatorial candidates for Georgia were incumbent Brian Kemp (R) and Stacey Abrams (D). The two had previously faced each other in the 2018 election season, where Kemp defeated Abrams. This election cycle was no different as Kemp won with 53.4% of the votes (2,109,105) and Abrams has 45.8% of the votes (1,809,522).

House: The state of Georgia elected 14 candidates on November 8th to serve in the U.S House of Representatives. Electing 6 democrats and 8 republicans to the House. Here are the results of these elections by district:

District 1:

Earl Cater (Incumbent) (R) – Winner

Wade Herring (D)

District 2:

Sanford Bishop Jr. (Incumbent) (D) – Winner

Chris West (R)

District 3:

Drew Ferguson (Incumbent) (R) – Winner

Val Almonord (D)

District 4:

Hank Johnson (Incumbent) (D) – Winner

Johnathan Chavez (R)

District 5:

Nikema Williams (Incumbent) (D) – Winner

Christian Zimm (R)

District 6:

Bob Christian (D) – Winner

Rich McCormick (R)

Distict 7:

Lucy Mcbath (Incumbent) (D) – Winner

Mark Gonsalves (R)

Lisa Babbage (R) (Write-in)

District 8:

Austin Scott (Incumbent) (R) – Winner

Darrius Butler (D)

District 9:

Andrew Clyde (Incumbent) (R) – Winner

Michael Ford (D)

District 10:

Tabitha Johnson-Green (D) – Winner

Mike Collins (R)

District 11:

Barry Loudermilk (Incumbent) (R ) – Winner

Antonio Daza (D)

District 12:

Rick Allen (Incumbent) (R) – Winner

Liz Johnson (D)

District 13:

David Scott (Incumbent) (D) – Winner

Caesar Gonzales (R)

District 14:

Majorie Taylor Greene (Incumbent) (R) – Winner

Marcus Flowers (D)

 

SENATE: Lastly, we will cover the senate results. The senate race between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R) has been closely watched. We monitored conversations live on election night from our Twitter.

https://twitter.com/ClemsonSMLC/status/1590174522023763969?s=20&t=k4ahNPaoHKKozKihO6MGiA

The results of this election were too close to call and neither candidate was awarded a majority of the votes. This means that there will be a runoff election held in Georgia on December 6th. 

We took to Sprinklr to see what the conversations were surrounding the news of a runoff. The term “Georgia Runoff” was mentioned 233.39k times and reached over 5.22 billion users since November 8th, 2022. The overall sentiment of this keyword search was 67.45% negative (11.46k mentions). The volume of this topic reached a peak on November 9th with 107,807 mentions. The most used social channel was Twitter.

Most of the content surrounding the runoffs were politicians attempting to mobilizie constituents to get ready to vote again.

Other tweets showed support to Warnock who is facing a similar situation to the 2020 elections where he won the runoff election against republican incumbent Loeffler.

Other top themes of discussion concerned the balance of the senate. This race will help determine who has control of the senate. As repoted by The Associated Press, currently the split is 46 democrats to 48 republicans. Runoffs, like the Georgia race, will be important in deciding who will get the power in the senate.  The SMLC will continue to follow this race and update you when results are in.

Author: Michelle Brazeau

Recapping the 2022 Midterm Elections in South Carolina

November 9, 2022

Yesterday, Nov. 8, was election day across the United States, and as the polls closed and results started to roll in voters across the country reacted to the results. The team here at the Social Media Listening Center followed along in real-time with the digital and news media traffic surrounding candidates in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia:

https://twitter.com/ClemsonSMLC/status/1590141515388817408?s=20&t=AFWMmLetQUWbIeHAApWPSQ

Now let’s take a quick glance at the results and numbers from South Carolina’s elections now that a majority of them have been called and the results are more official. All voting numbers and election results have been sourced from Ballotpedia.

Governor: Henry McMaster (R – Incumbent) def. Joe Cunningham (D) and Bruce Reeves (Libertarian)

McMaster and his running-mate Pamela Evette held onto their positions in the governor’s office for another term, defeating opponents Cunningham and Reeves. McMaster earned 57.2% of the votes across South Carolina, totaling 711,862 ballots, compared to Cunningham’s 41.6% of votes and Reeves’ 1.2%. This victory means another four years of Republican leadership in South Carolina, even though many posts across social media indicate negative sentiment toward McMaster. McMaster himself has not yet posted anything on his Twitter account since the race was called.

Read our article about the gubernatorial candidates here.

Senator: Tim Scott (R – Incumbent) def. Krystle Matthews (D) 

The race for this Senate seat was one of the very first called across the entire country last night, with Scott easily defeating Matthews to retain his spot in Washington D.C. Scott earned a solid 68% of the vote (742,616 ballots) compared to 38% (455,066 ballots) for Matthews, and write-in candidate Jesse Harper sadly earning not a single vote. Scott first took office in 2013 and continues his tenure for this next term.

Incumbent senator Lindsey Graham (R) was not up for re-election this cycle.

Read our article about the Senate candidates here.

House of Representatives

District 1: Nancy Mace (R – Incumbent) def. Annie Andrews (D) and Joseph Oddo (Alliance)

Mace was yet another Republican candidate who was re-elected. District 1 includes Charleston and much of the surrounding coastal area of the state. Mace earned 56.4% of the vote, compared to Andrews’ 42.5% and Oddo’s 1%.

District 2: Joe Wilson (R – Incumbent) def. Judd Larkins (D)

Wilson earned 59.4% of the vote compared to Clemson University alumnus Larkins, who earned 40.6%. District 2 includes the city of Columbia.

District 3: Jeff Duncan (R – Incumbent) won

Duncan ran unopposed in District 3, which is home to us here in Clemson.

District 4: William Timmons (R – Incumbent) def. Lee Turner (Independent write-in)

Timmons also maintained his hold in District 4, which houses Greenville.

District 5: Ralph Norman (R – Incumbent) def. Evangeline Hundley (D) and Larry Gaither (Green)

The strong run for incumbent Republican candidates continued as Norman also held onto District 5, winning with 64.5% of the vote compared to 34% for Hundley and 1.5% for Gaither.

District 6: James Clybern (D – Incumbent) def. Duke Buckner (R) 

However, the luck of the incumbent was not only limited to Republicans. Democratic representative James Clybern also kept ahold of his seat for District 6, defeating Buckner by nabbing 61.5% of the vote.

District 7: Russell Fry (R) def. Daryl Scott (D) 

The incumbent representative for District 7, Tom Rice, did not make the final ballot in the general election. Instead, Russell Fry advanced as the Republican candidate, and he ultimately took the district over Scott with 63.7% of the vote.

Read our article about the House of Representatives candidates here.

At the end of the day, of the nine South Carolina politicians in Congress (eight of whom were on the Nov. 8 general election ballot), only one is a Democrat, James Clybern of District 6 in the House of Representatives. The others are all members of the Republican party:

Partisan breakdown in South Carolina
Courtesy of Ballotpedia

Author: Kayleigh Jackson

South Carolina U.S House Candidates on Social Media

November 4, 2022

Previously, we have examined the gubernatorial and senate races for the state of South Carolina. Finally, we will end this week by exploring the races happening for the U.S House of Representatives. While all districts will be mentioned, we used Sprinklr to look Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the most depth. This is because they encompass the larger cities in the state, such as Charleston (1), Columbia(2), Greenville (4). We also included district 3 as it represents us here in Clemson.  To help clarify, here is a map showing the 7 congressional districts in South Carolina.

District 1: Nancy Mace (R)– Incumbent, Annie Andrews (D), and Joseph Oddo (Alliance Party)

Representative Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) is the incumbent Republican nominee for district 1. Mace’s name has been been mentioned over 149k times and reached 2.6 billion users. Mentions were overall coded as 81% negative. Some of the top themes under the search of Mace’s name are “Donald Trump” and  “Democrat running against Republican Nancy Mace”. The most retweeted post under Mace’s name is from her opponent, Dr. Annie Andrews

Mace has also been highly mentioned as Tulsi Gabbard, who previously ran for president in 2020 as a democratic nominee, left the Democratic Party and gave Nancy Mace her endorsement.

Dr. Annie Andrews (@AnnieAndrewsMD) is a pediatrician and the democratic nominee in District 1.

A search of her name reveals that she has been mentioned 26.3k times and reached over 143 million users. The sentiment of these mentions were coded as 63% positive. Some of the top themes of discussion surrounding Dr. Andrews include “Violence against Women Act.. This is a reference to a tweet in which Dr. Andrews quotes herself  calling out Nancy Mace for voting against this act.

Joseph Oddo doesn’t seem to have an official campaign Twitter. However, an online search revealed he was in the Alliance party and is a strong believer in election reform.

District 2: Joe Wilson (R)– Incumbent and Judd Larkins (D)

Representative Joe Wilson (@RepJoeWilson) is the incumbent Republican nominee for district 2. A search of his name revealed he been mentioned over 47k times and reached over 263 million users. The sentiment of the posts was more negatively coded at 84%. The themes and posts discussing Joe Wilson were saturated with call backs to the time he yelled “you lie” at President Obama during his State of The Union address. The most retweeted post on the matter coming from his opponent Judd Larkins.

https://twitter.com/JuddForCongress/status/1560006771695026181?s=20&t=O38quX48d_OOrzFlgA5Zrg

 Judd Larkins (@JuddforCongress) is the democratic nominee for district 3. Larkins name has been mentioned 1.3k times and reached 16.7 million users. The overall sentiment of these posts were 68% positive.

https://twitter.com/JuddForCongress/status/1560714425291751424?s=20&t=Zc38FW4PbeHGnpmzStYfsw

Most of the posts mentioning Larkins name were from his personal account or those who are in support of his campaign. Similarly, to Representative Joe Wilson, many of the posts use the “you lie” incident as a way to gain support for Larkin.

District 3: Jeff Duncan (R)– Incumbent

Representative Jeff Duncan (@RepJeffDuncan) is the republican incumbent and only nominee for district 3, which represents us here in Clemson. Duncan’s name has been mentioned 19k times and reached over 170 million users. The overall sentiment of these posts were 65% negative. Many of the top tweets related to Jeff Duncan show him on a list of congressmen who attempted to overturn the election or were related to the insurrection of the Capitol on January 6th.

District 4: William Timmons (R)– Incumbent and Lee Turner (Independent) (Write In)

Representative William Timmons (@RepTimmons) is the incumbent republican nominee for district 4. A search of his name revealed he had been mentioned 7.4k times and reached 50 million users. The overall sentiment of the posts were 86% negative. Simialrly to Representative Duncan, the most retween posts using Timmons name put him on the same list regarding the events on January 6th. A top theme regarding Timmons was Donald Trump, primarily for his endorsement of Timmons.

Lee Turner (@VoteLeeTurner) is the independent write in candidate for the 4th district. She has been mentioned 1.99k times and reached 30.8 million times. The overall sentiment of the post were 60% positive. Most of the content surrounding Turner were call to action posts to ensure constituents know to write in Turner, if they so choose.

Finally, here is a list of the remaining districts we did not cover today.

District 5: Ralph Norman (R)– Incumbent, Evangeline Hundley (D), and Larry Gaither (Green Party)

District 6: James Clyburn (D)– Incumbent andDave Buckner (R)

District 7: Daryl Scott (D) and Russell Fry (R)

The SMLC will continue to follow the midterm elections which take place on Tuesday, November 8th.

Author: Michelle Brazeau

South Carolina’s Senate Candidates On Social Media

November 2, 2022

Earlier in this election cycle, we looked at South Carolina’s three candidates for governor and their presences on Twitter. Now, let’s take a look at the three candidates for the state’s seat in the Senate: Tim Scott (R), Krystle Matthews (D), and Jesse Harper (I).

Tim Scott – Republican – Incumbent

Scott is the incumbent senator for the state of South Carolina, and is running for re-election on Nov. 8. Two other Republican candidates, Casey O’Grady and Timothy Swain, withdrew from the race prior to the primary election, allowing Scott to move ahead unchallenged within his own party. Scott’s name has been mentioned 10.6K+ times in the United States since the start of October. On Twitter, he was mentioned 606 times by users who identify their locations as within South Carolina. Nearly 70% of these mentions were negatively coded.

Many of the top themes of discussion around Scott discuss his connections to other political figures, several of them being polarizing Republicans like incumbent governor Henry McMaster, fellow South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham (who is not up for re-election this cycle), and Herschel Walker. Within the most recent content, many users discuss how Scott’s politics are money-driven and fail to represent other South Carolinians of color in particular. In fact, most mentions of Scott’s name are opposed to him and his policies, advocating for his opponent Krystle Matthews and pointing out how poorly Scott has addressed local issues like infrastructure and crime rates.

Scott’s Twitter handle is @SenatorTimScott, and has been mentioned 14.1K+ times in the United States since the start of October; a whopping 85% of mentions are negative – which comes as no surprise after analyzing the themes of Tweets in-state that mention his name. Scott has 679K followers on the platform and has posted 11.4K times since joining in Nov. 2010. Sean Hannity, Dr. Oz, and and FOX News contributor Jason Chaffetz are among the top prolific users engaging with his Twitter account this month.

Krystle Matthews – Democrat

Matthews earned the Democratic nomination after beating out opponents Angela Geter and Catherine Fleming Bruce in the primaries. All three initial candidates are women of color, an exciting development for the state.

Each candidate’s supporters seem to take over mentions of their opponent’s name – just as many of Matthews’ advocates took over mentions of Scott’s name with pro-Matthews content, many of the top and recent posts on Twitter under Matthews’ name are bashing her and advocating for Scott. Lots of this content alleges that Matthews is a foul-mouthed and immature racist rather than focusing on her policies or what benefits her opponents may offer that she doesn’t.

Matthews has only been mentioned 562 times in the United States since the start of October, and 96.4% of these mentions are negative – many similar to the attacks mentioned above. There is a major uptick in mentions just yesterday, Nov. 1, with the following Tweet being shared widely by her supporters:

https://twitter.com/veteran91910/status/1587444102790103040?s=20&t=wOvUdUNItbwg7qGBqYjm8A

Matthews used to be able be found on Twitter at @kmforsenate, but another reason her name was trending so much on Nov. 1 was that she evidently deleted her account yesterday as well. With so much vitriol, it’s understandable that she made this decision, yet from a public relations and marketing standpoint it seems an interesting move especially as the election nears. Her account’s disappearance was spotted by a pundit on the conservative platform Gettr, which describes itself as “a brand new social media platform founded on the principles of free speech, independent thought and rejecting political censorship and ‘cancel culture’.”

https://twitter.com/Ellabellabadd/status/1587494574246723585?s=20&t=eUcWHudXxQQBLgv3PIVG8Q

Jesse Harper – Independent American Party

Harper is a write-in independent candidate listed as a member of the Independent American Party. Larry Adams Jr. was another independent candidate who withdrew from the race, leaving Harper as the only challenger to the bipartisan system. However, it looks like Harper will not be able to make much of an impact on the election. Their name has only been mentioned 24 times in the United States since the start of October, and most of those are not about the same Jesse Harper in question. In fact, a majority of them are about a man named Jesse Harper who recently opened a recreational marijuana business in Vermont.

In trying to narrow down the content down to our Jesse Harper, there is only one Tweet about Harper and South Carolina, posted on Sept. 8 – before Adams left the race.

Harper does not appear to have a Twitter profile and indeed it is difficult to even find via Google, with their name returning results for an EMT, an inmate, and a former football player who died in 1961.

It appears the race for the second Senate seat here in South Carolina will come down to Scott and Matthews, and based on the combative dialogue online it looks like it will prove to be a contentious battle indeed.

Author: Kayleigh Jackson