How do the policy preferences of different groups of voters shape political candidates’ social media presence during election campaigns? Do candidates talk more about the issues that are of importance to the general public, their party supporters, or undecided voters? How do regional politics and preferences affect candidate rhetoric? Finally, how do political newcomers and experienced incumbents differ in their use of social media in response to public preferences? We examine these questions by combining British National Election Study panel survey data on political preferences and attitudes with keyword-assisted topic model classifications of all Twitter posts from British politicians in the 2015, 2017, and 2019 UK general election campaigns.