John McCain is losing followers left and right—but, probably, mostly on the left.
Thousands of Twitter users have unfollowed the Republican Senator from Arizona over the past day in the wake of McCain’s vote last week to help pass the Senate GOP’s massive tax reform bill. On Monday afternoon, McCain’s office tweeted a message calling for more Twitter followers, as the senator’s account only needed 74 more followers to reach 3 million.
The seemingly lighthearted solicitation backfired, though, as “#UnfollowMcCain” began trending among Twitter users who were angry over the politician’s vote in favor of tax reform (after much posturing from McCain in the lead-up to the vote).
We're only 74 Twitter followers away from 3M – spread the word & help us reach this big milestone!
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) December 4, 2017
#UnfollowMcCain born when Sen. McCain asked Twitter for more followers, he’s lost thousands since. #TheResistancehttps://t.co/lpltqfyW3c
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) December 5, 2017
Just over one day after McCain’s initial tweet about needing only 74 followers to reach 3 million, the senator’s account is now nearly 20,000 followers away from that same goal. Twitter automatically rounds up high-profile users’ follower counts, so McCain’s account currently shows 2.98 million followers, but the actual count at any given moment (currently 2,980,243) is revealed by hovering a mouse over the number.
Of course, in the grand scheme of things, reaching three million Twitter followers is not a milestone of any real significance for McCain, who was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year and is not seeking reelection. However, the symbolic protest clearly struck a chord for thousands of Twitter users looking to voice their displeasure over McCain’s latest political move.