Congressional Democrats’ use of X, formerly Twitter, has dropped sharply in the years since Elon Musk took over the social media giant, a new report says.
Significantly more Republican lawmakers used X in 2024 than their Democratic counterparts, according to public affairs firm Quorum. Of the top 20 most active accounts of members of Congress, only one – Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla. – from the left, with No. 15.
It’s a big change even from Quorum’s 2023 report, which came out more than a year after Musk bought the site — at that. The top 10 most active congressional accounts are almost evenly split with six Republicans and four Democrats on the list. Now, they are all Republicans.
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Many Democratic lawmakers have scaled back their use of X since Elon Musk bought the site. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Many on the left have criticized Musk’s ownership of X, accusing him of using it to bolster President-elect Donald Trump and right-wing causes. But Musk and his allies insisted he was creating user-controlled information that encouraged free speech.
The report pointed to a 2023 poll showing a sharp decline in Americans who identify as Democrats using the app.
“The use of X is declining among the general public after Elon Musk’s takeover – Democrats are driving the exodus, according to a survey conducted early last year,” the report said.
“After looking at the data, it is clear that the decline in usage does not come from the general public. Government officials, especially those on the left, are also changing their communication habits.”
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Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., is the only Democrat on the list of the top 20 most active congressional accounts.
Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Pa., for example, was the most active Democratic congressman in X in 2023 before his frequency of office dropped by 66% this year, the report said.
Work on X accounts for California Reps. Robert Garcia and Ted Lieu, both Democrats, are down 35% and 26%, respectively.
In 2024, the most active X accounts were those of Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Republican lawmakers, as a whole, make up 54.4% of the X vacancies in Congress in 2024, compared to 45.1% for Democrats.
In 2023, Congressional Democrats held 50.8% of the legislative jobs in X, compared to 48.8% for Republicans, Quorum’s previous report said.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is the most frequent congressional X user, the report shows. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
It’s important to note that it’s common practice for congressional lawmakers to manually control their professional or personal X accounts — often both — for their staff.
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But other lawmakers like Cruz and Roy, and the third most active poster, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., is known to frequently contact other X users directly.
Frost, the lone Democrat among the 20 most likely users to appear in Congress in 2024, warned libertarians not to abandon the popular app to Republicans, in an interview with Politico last month.
“If we leave X, it will help Elon in his goal of making the platform free from progressive ideas or the way we think about the world,” he said.
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