#KeepCalmVoteDem Hashtag Trends On Twitter, Gets Hijacked By Republicans

The hashtag #KeepCalmVoteDem was hijacked by Republicans on Twitter from Democrats, who were trying to use the phrase to energize the electorate on social media to vote for Democratic candidates in the 2014 midterm elections. The hashtag was one of the social media site’s trending topics on Thursday morning.

Democratic political strategist and CNN contributor Donna Brazile was among the Democrats who tweeted out the hashtag. Brazile also used hashtags to highlight the Democratic platform this election cycle:

Liberals on Twitter also tweeted out #KeepCalmVoteDem, a take on the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On,” the slogan created by the British government to raise morale during World War II.

But for every Democrat who tweeted out #KeepCalmVoteDem, there were about just as many conservatives who used the phrase to mock Democrats.

The hashtag went viral with less than a week before the midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress. Democrats have a majority in the Senate, but President Barack Obama’s unpopularity is making it likely that the GOP will overtake the chamber and have full control of the legislative branch of government. Republicans have a 93 percent chance as of Thursday to control the Senate, according to the Washington Post’s Election Lab. GOP expectations are more tempered at FiveThirtyEight; the website’s latest projections show Republicans with a 64 percent chance of winning the majority of Senate seats on Tuesday.