Fox News/screenshot
Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R).
Gilmore made his second appearance on the presidential debate stage Thursday night, in the so-called undercard, lower-tier affair.
He had not garnered enough support in national or early-state polling to qualify for all but one of the other six debate series.
The governor's appearance on the debate stage was clearly a boon for his name recognition.
As soon as Thursday's debate started, Gilmore became one of the top-Googled candidates. Google said searches for Gilmore were up more than 700%.
Spike in Google searches of Jim Gilmore, but some of these questions aren't necessarily positive.... #nprdebate pic.twitter.com/fuNRhgl7bS
- Jessica Taylor (@JessicaTaylor) January 29, 2016Gilmore wasn't just popular on Google - the former governor also dominated the social media conversation.
Twitter was abuzz about Gilmore, who a Twitter spokesman said become the No. 3 US trend on the social-media site during the undercard debate.
I'm not watching the undercard debate, so lemme tell ya this sudden interest in Jim Gilmore is inexplicable and intriguing. What happened?
- Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) January 29, 2016Who is Jim Gilmore and when did he join the race? #GOPDebate
- Tranae Felicien (@TheOnlyTrain) January 29, 2016Pass the popcorn...the warm up act has taken the stage. BTW who is Jim Gilmore and where has he been? #GOPDebate
- Pam Ressler (@pamressler) January 29, 2016The Washington Post's Philip Bump also noted that more people have begun searching Gilmore's name on Google than rockstar Johnny Marr.
Over the past 90 days, Jim Gilmore has sometimes attracted more search interest than Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr! pic.twitter.com/tsCQGcmmyK
- Philip Bump (@pbump) January 29, 2016