Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lost nearly 20,000 followers on Twitter this week after asking his supporters to help him get more followers.

On Monday, McCain tweeted that his account was only 74 followers away from 3 million, and asked his followers to "spread the word" to help him reach that number.

The effort backfired - shortly after 12:40 p.m. Tuesday, McCain had 2,982,352 followers.

Some of the top replies to the senator's original tweet are from former followers who deliberately decided to unfollow, citing reasons largely connected to the GOP tax bill.

"Since you choose to care about only yourself and wealthy friends I chose to unfollow," wrote one woman.

McCain voted for the GOP tax plan that the Senate passed early Saturday morning, facing backlash from Democrats and critics who say the bill primarily benefits the wealthy and corporations at the expense of middle-class and poor Americans.