PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Election Day is Nov. 5, but early voting has been underway since late September and Google searches show Virginians have been busy looking up the candidates, including those in the upcoming Virginia Senate race.

Data from Google Trends showed how the candidates performed on Google Search. Data showed when and where Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) and his challenger Hung Cao (R) sparked the most interest online.

The data is shown with values from 0-100 and is determined based on search interest at a specific point in time, or in a geographical region, relative to the total number of searches in the designated time period. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100.

This includes a scale on how well candidates have been doing at drawing in Hampton Roads residents to their online presence.

There could be numerous factors as to why a candidate piqued interest, such as political and world events or a trending social media post. Since these data points are simply based on clicks, they don’t necessarily indicate whether the online attention was positive or negative, or predict how citizens in the state will vote.

A timeline over the last 90 days showed how the two Senatorial candidates have been performing on Google. The values listed in this article were pulled from data on Sept. 29.

The interactive chart below provides the most recent data points.

While not every spike has had an obvious national event correlated to it, there were some events that could’ve led to increased interest on specific dates, however miniscule.

On July 16, Cao spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention for former President Donald Trump. Unsurprisingly, Cao drew in quite of bit of searches that continued to grow until July 19 — a day after the convention’s conclusion solidified Trump’s position as the Republican GOP nominee.

On July 21, Kaine saw a spike that was valued at 91. This comes the same day President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race. Following Biden’s announcement, Kaine released a statement on X.

“As I have been saying for weeks, President @JoeBiden is a patriotic American who has always put the needs of our country ahead of himself,” Kaine’s July 21 post reads, in part. “For more than five decades, he has served this country admirably as a Senator, Vice President, and now President. His decision today reflects the same patriotism that George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt demonstrated when they selflessly put their country above their own political ambitions.”

A couple weeks later, Kaine provoked a stream of eyes from Aug. 5-6. The day prior, he posted birthday wishes to former President Barack Obama.

Then on Aug. 6, a different Tim got widespread national attention after Tim Walz was announced as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. Kaine then later took to social media to comment on the announcement.

“Sure hope @Tim_Walz shares my pick for favorite album—“Tim” by Minnesota’s own The Replacements,” Kaine posted on X.

The Virginia senator playing off the shared first names seemingly worked to gain searches, although the increase may have stemmed from people mistaking the two politicians.

Cao, who served in the U.S. Navy for 25 years, had increased interested on Aug. 8. That’s the same day he posted a photo of him back in uniform, making a jab at Walz, with the caption, “Here’s a picture of me not being Tim Walz.”

The retired military combat veteran saw another notable surge in online interest from Aug. 26-27. Cao was seen with Trump making a surprise visit at the Truong Tien Vietnamese Restaurant at the Eden Center in Falls Church on Aug. 26.

Cao was endorsed by Trump back in May before receiving the Republican Senate nomination for Virginia.

He posted on X. “It was great joining @realDonaldTrump at Eden Center this morning. This November, the Vietnamese community will turn out for President Trump and myself and we will save America!”

Both candidates gained searches on Sept. 11. The day marked the national tragedy after terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people. Many political leaders took to social media to commemorate the day, honor the fallen and speak out on the tragedy.

Kaine and Cao both posted on X in honor of the anniversary.

Google Trends also tracked how Kaine and Cao were performing in different regions of Virginia. When compared to each other, Kaine received a higher value for searches than Cao in every region except Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill. 

When scored by region, Kaine’s top area of search interest was Charlottesville with a score of 85 compared to Cao’s score of 15.

Meanwhile, Cao’s top region was Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill with the full score of 100.

The data region that covered most of Hampton Roads was listed under Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News. This area has the two candidates neck and neck with Kaine holding a slight lead at 52 to 48.

The close interest is not surprising given the region’s military presence, especially considering Cao’s retired military status.

Top five areas in Virginia searching about Kaine over Cao: 

• Charlottesville — scored 87 to 13 
• Harrisonburg — scored 84 to 16 
• Roanoke-Lynchburg — scored 60 to 40 
• Richmond-Petersburg — scored 58 to 42 
• Tri-Cities TN — scored 54 to 46 

Top five areas in Virginia searching about Cao over Kaine:

• Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill WV — scored 100 to 0 
• Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News VA — scored 49 to 51 
• Tri-Cities TN-VA — scored 46 to 54 
• Richmond-Petersburg VA — scored 42 to 58 
• Roanoke-Lynchburg — scored 60 to 40 

When the two candidates are scored individually, as opposed to scored relative to the other, the data changes.

Top search regions for Kaine’s individual scores: 

• Charlottesville — scored 100 
• Harrisonburg — scored 72 
• Roanoke-Lynchburg — scored 49 

Top search regions for Cao’s individual scores: 

• Richmond-Petersburg — scored 100 
• Roanoke-Lynchburg — scored 90 
• Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News — scored 89 

To help voters make their decisions, Kaine and Cao will meet for a live televised debate hosted by Nexstar Media Group at Norfolk State University on Wednesday, Oct. 2. This will be their only face-to-face debate during the campaign ahead of Election Day. 

The debate will air live across the state. Click here to see where you can watch it.