Which Republican debate moment got people talking on Facebook?
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio wasn't one of the candidates Facebook users spent the most time discussing during the Fox Business Network/Wall Street Journal Republican debate, but his exchange with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the most social moment of the evening.
The two senators got in an argument about the wisdom of spending U.S. tax dollars on national defense priorities. Rubio called Paul "a committed isolationist" and argued that the world is a stronger and better place when the U.S. has the strongest military power in the world.
Paul challenged his credentials as a conservative.
"Can you be a conservative and be liberal on military spending?...I want a strong national defense but I don't want us to be bankrupt," Paul replied.
Defense wasn't one of the top issues discussed during the debate, which was focused on the economy. Facebook users spent their time talking about taxes, immigration, the minimum wage, jobs and health care.
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who has been challenging businessman Donald Trump for the top spot in the polls, was the most-discussed candidate among all Facebook users and female Facebook users. The top-discussed candidate among men was Paul.
The other candidates generating the most discussion were Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. The other three candidates on stage - Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich - were not among the most-discussed candidates for either men or women on Facebook.
The most engaged states on Facebook were Virginia, New Hampshire, Maryland, Wisconsin and Vermont.
Across a broader array of social media platforms, Trump got the most chatter with 107,408 mentions according to social media analytics firm NetBase. Next up was Cruz with 88,130 mentions, and then Paul, who got the most chatter of any debate so far with 73, 159 mentions. Kasich got the least with 42,747.
People were talking about this debate on social media less than the first two Republican debates, which also had record viewership. The debate got 1,124,169 mentions on social media, which was about 700,000 less than each of the first two GOP debates and up about 10,000 from the CNBC debate.
Rubio saw the biggest improvement in his "net sentiment," which compares the total amount of positive comments to the total amount of negative comments about a candidate before and during a debate. Kasich saw the biggest drop.