What have Iowans been searching for on Google as the clock runs down to their precinct caucuses? The only two candidates to top the list of political searches are over the past 24 hours are Ron Paul (#2) and Rick Santorum (#4). The remaining political top five: “Iowa caucus” (#1), “Iowa Caucus 2012” (#3), and “Iowa Caucus Locations” (#5).


We also wondered what people who were already interested in the three top-polling candidates -- Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum -- were also searching for, so we used Google Insights to chart fast-rising search terms. As you can see, searches for [rick santorum iowa] have increased by 300% this week, with searches for [mitt romney] up (only?) 130%. Whether that differential has electoral significance, of course, we’ll have to wait a few more hours to learn.




Posted by: Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team