How politicians are tweeting about 'House of Cards'

By
Thursday, 27 February 2014

With the season 2 premiere of @HouseofCards on February 14, the Netflix political drama has been the talk of Twitter the past few weeks — especially with politicians themselves.

Members of Congress and senators are using Twitter to share their perspective on the popular show about their line of work. This is a great example of how effective it is for celebrities, leaders and other high-profile accounts to engage about popular topics outside their field.

New York Rep. Chris Collins (@RepChrisCollins), Texas Rep. Steve Stockman (@StockmanSenate) and Democratic House whip Steny Hoyer (@WhipHoyer) have all tweeted about the intrigue-laden drama.

In fact, series star @KevinSpacey questioned Rep. Hoyer:

Quite a few other legislators around the country have tweeted about House of Cards too. For instance, California Rep. Jackie Speier (@RepSpeier) tweeted about an issue she’s passionate about referenced in the show.

New Jersey Senator @CoryBooker compared the accuracy of House of Cards to two other political dramas set in Washington, D.C.

And Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards (@repdonnaedwards) tweeted a video of featuring her and some other members of Congress acting out lines from the show.

This conversation was not one-sided, either. The @HouseofCards account took advantage of the high-profile activity on Twitter to engage with politicians (mostly teasing them, actually) to drive viral twitter conversation in the days leading up to the start of season 2.

For instance, @HouseofCards asked New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) how the ribs are at @DinosaurBBQ, following his Tweet about the opening of the restaurant’s new location.

And @DinosaurBBQ responded:

The @HouseofCards account even poked fun at politicians outside of the U.S., replying to a Tweet from Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband), the leader of the British Labour Party.

Do you know of other innovative uses of Twitter? Write to mediablog@twitter.com.