This 'Big-Eared Creature' Is Crushing 2 New Dems

Baby Yoda of 'Star Wars' series debuted as Bloomberg, Patrick entered race, with more buzz
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 29, 2019 11:25 AM CST
#BabyYoda2020? He's Got More Buzz Than Some Dems
This undated image shows a scene from "The Mandalorian," featuring Baby Yoda.   (Disney Plus via AP)

A "diminutive, doe-eyed, big-eared creature" is giving two new 2020 candidates for president a run for their money. That's how the New York Post describes Baby Yoda, a character in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian who's said to have "conquered the world" since the show's debut on Disney Plus on Nov. 12. Axios reports that world domination has some quantifiable stats via social media, where Baby Yoda is pretty much crushing all of the Dems running for the Oval Office, based on social interactions on news stories such as likes, shares, and comments. Using data given to it from NewsWhip, a social media engagement tracking firm, the outlet notes that, for the period stretching from Nov. 12 to Nov. 25, each news story about Baby Yoda that popped up on Facebook and Twitter generated an average of 1,671 social interactions.

Compared to all Dem candidates, the next-closest contender was Bernie Sanders, with 850, then Joe Biden, with 839. Who Axios notes might be most concerned, however, are new candidates Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick, who come in 14th (173 interactions) and last place (134), respectively—meaning Baby Yoda has an average interaction rate about 10 times higher than theirs. That's noteworthy because Baby Yoda, Bloomberg, and Patrick all exploded into the collective consciousness at around the same time, as "fresh faces" they hoped would attract the public's attention. That Bloomberg and Patrick have had a "significant number of articles" written about them since they officially entered the 2020 race, yet still aren't generating as much excitement as a fictional character (albeit one also driven by plenty of viral memes and GIFs), may mean they could use a little more of the Force. (More Yoda stories.)

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