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鈥淭he Democratic party is a progressive party,鈥� Elizabeth Warren鈥檚 official account聽聽last week, 鈥渆ven if there are a lot of people on the聽#DemDebate stage who don鈥檛 want to say so.鈥� It was a jab at all the other Democratic candidates except for Bernie Sanders. And it鈥檚 easy to imagine Senator Sanders鈥� supporters 鈥渓iking鈥� that message.

But that鈥檚 not what happened.

The first response came one minute later from an account called @AmazingBernie, and it featured a photoshopped image of Senator Warren鈥檚 head on the body of a snake. Soon dozens of replies from Sanders supporters piled on top. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e a pathological liar,鈥� wrote someone聽named Paul. 鈥淕o away Republican,鈥� tweeted Robin. 鈥淵OU ARE NOT A PROGRESSIVE!鈥� thundered an account named 鈥淚鈥檓 1 of the Squad.鈥澛�

Editor鈥檚 Note: Social media accounts operated by one of the people quoted in this story, who said his name was Alan Jeffs, have subsequently been shut down by Twitter and Facebook, after a Washington Post investigation raised questions about Mr. Jeffs鈥檚 identity. The account cited at the time had been verified as authentic. Mr. Jeffs鈥檚 phone has since been disconnected.

It鈥檚 a recurring pattern. A candidate from a rival campaign sends out a tweet, and within minutes it is swarmed by hundreds, or thousands, of responses that are either supportive of Mr. Sanders, scathing towards his rivals, or both. A Monitor analysis of several hundred Twitter accounts 鈥� those most frequently responding directly to the five leading Democratic candidates over the past year 鈥� using data provided by researchers at George Washington University, found that the number of pro-Sanders accounts far exceeds supporters of any other Democratic campaign.听聽

And while it鈥檚 become almost clich茅聽to note that Twitter isn鈥檛 鈥渞eal life,鈥� that doesn鈥檛 mean it has no impact. During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump proved Twitter鈥檚 power in agenda-setting, and he has continued to use it as an effective tool throughout his presidency. Among the thousands of campaign-related tweets analyzed by the Monitor, only Mr. Trump鈥檚 supporters rival Mr. Sanders鈥� in the quantity and often vitriolic nature of their replies.

Indeed, in the Democratic primary race, Sanders supporters have dominated the Twitterverse in a way that data experts and political scientists say is unlike anything they鈥檝e ever seen.听

鈥淭his may be a permanent change in politics,鈥� says Frank Sesno, director of George Washington University鈥檚 School of Media and Public Affairs. 鈥淎ny candidate, when they are looking at what it takes to succeed, will come away seeing that now they have to appeal even more to the emotions, and the fears, of their followers 鈥� because that emotion drives response and engagement on social media.鈥�

With Mr. Sanders racking up wins in two of the first four primaries, the behavior of his supporters has come under sharper scrutiny. Recently, the Bloomberg campaign launched 聽featuring screenshots of online threats made by Sanders fans. At the Nevada debate, Pete Buttigieg asked Mr. Sanders directly why such behavior seems to be so prominent among his supporters.

鈥淲e do not want your support if you think that what our campaign is about is making ugly attacks on other candidates,鈥� Mr. Sanders said last week, when pressed on the issue . 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want you. You鈥檙e not part of us.鈥�

Damian Dovarganes/Reuters

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane, stand before supporters at a campaign event at the Los Angeles Convention Center on March 1, 2020.

The Vermont senator has also suggested that some of the online vitriol may actually be Russian efforts to once again interfere in a United States election. This claim was bolstered by news that Russia may be trying to .听

But Twitter has , saying it would identify and disclose such activity. And according to several social media experts, the most frequent pro-Sanders tweeters are likely real people. Since the 2016 election, Twitter has made it much more difficult and expensive to create fake accounts.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we can blame this on Russia,鈥� says Trevor Davis, a research professor at George Washington University鈥檚 Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics. 鈥淎 subset of Sanders supporters shares a deep distrust in the party,鈥� he says. 鈥淭heir attacks on other Democrats reflect a belief that the system is rigged.鈥�

Of the 100 accounts that have most frequently responded to Mr. Buttigieg鈥檚 tweets, before he dropped out of the race over the weekend, at least 55 are identifiably pro-Sanders. Among Mr. Bloomberg鈥檚 top repliers, 51 are pro-Bernie.

And of Ms. Warren鈥檚 most frequent repliers, 25 are pro-Bernie 鈥� fewer than the others, but in some ways the most telling, since they are undermining the candidate who is ideologically closest to their own.听None of Mr. Sanders鈥� top 100 repliers, on the other hand, are from identifiably pro-Warren accounts.听聽

鈥淥ur goal is to influence the discourse鈥�

Britin Foster, a musical booking agent who lives near Albany, New York, tweets and retweets hundreds of pro-Bernie messages a day, in addition to making hundreds of replies to other candidates鈥� tweets.听

When informed that she鈥檚 one of the top 100 repliers to both Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Buttigieg, she says she鈥檚 honored by that distinction 鈥� particularly her frequent replies to Mr. Bloomberg, whom she regards as even worse than President Trump. One of the memes featured in the former mayor鈥檚 commercial about online threats made by Sanders supporters, says Ms. Foster proudly, was hers.听

She isn鈥檛 at all surprised that Sanders supporters鈥� Twitter activity dwarfs everyone else鈥檚. That, after all, is the goal.

鈥淐alling Bloomberg out, for example 鈥� we can do that on Twitter, and the media sees it, the pundits see it, the other politicians see it,鈥� says Ms. Foster. 鈥淥ur goal is to influence the national discourse ... and we don鈥檛 have another platform where we could reach those people so easily.鈥澛�

After MSNBC host Chris Matthews made comments on air comparing Sanders supporters to the Germans in World War II, Ms. Foster saw the outrage build on Twitter, with Sanders supporters producing memes and tweets that multiplied exponentially in no time. Last week, Mr. Matthews made .听聽

鈥淚f social media weren鈥檛 worthwhile, then why is Mike Bloomberg spending hundreds of millions to advertise on it?鈥� says Alan Jeffs, a supporter of Mr. Sanders who has already made the list of Mr. Bloomberg鈥檚 top responders since starting his account @BernieOrElse a few weeks ago. 鈥淭witter is the real world now, even more than it was four years ago.鈥澛�

Asked about the vulgarity and outright hostility of many Sanders supporters online, both Ms. Foster and Mr. Jeffs justify it as in the service of a greater good. If it helps Mr. Sanders get elected, they say, it will be worth it. Sanders supporters aren鈥檛 locking children in cages, says Mr. Jeffs; they鈥檙e trying to ensure everyone has access to health care. Mr. Jeffs himself is currently unemployed, and says he quit his job as a graphic designer just to qualify for Medicaid, because the Affordable Care Act didn鈥檛 cover his prescribed treatments.

鈥淚t may feel like it鈥檚 bullying or like it鈥檚 blackmail, but the lower and working classes have been bullied by the establishment and elite for too long,鈥� says Mr. Jeffs, adding that Mr. Sanders鈥� supporters are just 鈥渂etter at the internet鈥� than other candidates鈥� supporters.听

Indeed, many Sanders supporters believe the news media is biased against the Vermont senator, and that it鈥檚 up to them to hold his more moderate rivals to account.

鈥淪ometimes it does come out vehemently, because we see our friends, our family, our communities suffering,鈥� says Ms. Foster. 鈥淲e are upset with people who are trying to maintain the status quo, when the status quo has been shown to be enormously harmful.鈥�

A challenge for party unity

Being 鈥渂etter鈥� at Twitter doesn鈥檛 necessarily give Sanders supporters a direct line to the American electorate. A 2019 Pew Research survey found that just聽 use Twitter 鈥� fewer than one-third of those on Facebook. And within this segment of the population, it鈥檚 an even smaller segment making the loudest noise, with the top 10% of tweeters 鈥� who are much more likely to be 聽鈥撀� generating 80% of all tweets.听

鈥淚鈥檓 skeptical that replies on Twitter are going to affect anybody鈥檚 vote,鈥� says Nicco Mele, a lecturer with Harvard University鈥檚 Kennedy School who worked as on Howard Dean鈥檚 groundbreaking 2004 digital campaign. Twitter helped Mr. Trump win in 2016 because of how he himself used it 鈥� and still uses it 鈥� to inform the news cycle, says Mr. Mele, not because of what his supporters are tweeting.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 this simple: I don鈥檛 see on CNN, 鈥楥andidate Bernie just tweeted this鈥� or 鈥楤ernie supporters just tweeted that,鈥欌�� says Mr. Mele. 鈥淓very day, Trump is using Twitter to drive the storyline and drive the media, and Bernie supporters aren鈥檛 doing that.鈥�

Still, others warn that the vast pro-Sanders efforts directed against his Democratic rivals online may cause harm to the party鈥檚 ability to unify, the full extent of which may not become clear until November.听

鈥淚f the Democrats want to regain the White House, they will have to find a way to unite behind the nominee,鈥� says Mr. Davis. 鈥淭here are some very loud voices online that could make that difficult.鈥�