Can a Facebook page full of goofy Maine memes beat the “Chuck Norris” of Maine politics? That’s the question Maine Memes is hoping to answer.
The Maine Memes Facebook page was created on Jan. 1 and features dozens of Maine-centric meme photos. For most of 2012, the page hasn’t had a huge following, but last week, its likes skyrocketed. According to data from Facebook, more than 3,000 people have liked it in the last seven days, and more than 15,000 people are talking about it.
The sudden spike in popularity prompted the page to post a meme poking fun at Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cynthia Dill. “Meme page has 3x more likes than Democratic U.S. Senate Nominee,” it read. As of this week, Dill has just 990 likes on Facebook, a weak number considering she is a major-party politician in a high-profile race.
And it didn’t take long for the meme page to surpass the number of likes Republican Charlie Summers had either—just a few hours, in fact. With more than 3,500 likes, the page turned its attention to Independent Angus King. “Can we catch up to Angus?” it asked.
With more than 30,000 likes, that might be a bigger challenge. King was a popular Independent governor in the 1990s and is sort of a political anomaly in the United States. By just announcing he was running for soon-to-be-former Sen. Olympia Snowe’s seat in Washington, he took the lead in the polls. On Facebook, he has 10 times more likes than Summers, his closest competitor.
Some fans of the meme page know it’s a lofty goal.
“Angus King is the Chuck Norris of Maine politics. He is untouchable,” wrote Morgan Christine Smith.
Some were not excited that the meme page had turned to politics, but it was quick to douse the fire, writing it was only there for entertainment purposes.
“No politics here at all – we’re just making fun of the fact that a meme page has more likes than important political figures,” the page administrator wrote.
But can it be done? In the last week, King has gained just 500 new likes. In less than three days, Maine Memes has scored more than 1,500 more fans. Perhaps King should be more worried about a little Facebook page than the Democrats and Republicans.
Image via Maine Memes/Facebook