The hype surrounding how podcast appearances by candidates are transforming the 2024 presidential election cycle is now being questioned after some dismal numbers found in a new poll show that few voters have been listening to the much-touted appearances from Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump over the past few weeks.
With polling consistently showing the two candidates locked in a dead heat, Harris and Trump’s campaigns have shifted from past strategies and incorporated non-traditional media appearances in a few forms. A major part of this shift is podcast appearances, as younger voters have shifted away from traditional media designed for mass audiences, where tough questions may be off the table during more rigid interviews, and toward social media and podcasts, where algorithms feed readers what they want and a lack of traditional rules and standards allow for a more raw discussion.
The strategy may have fallen flat for both candidates, though. Polling from USA Today/Suffolk University shows fewer than 30 percent of respondents heard either candidate’s guest spots on popular podcasts, like Harris’ much-touted Call Her Daddy guest spot, where she and host Alex Cooper discussed abortion care in America or her conversation with DJ Charlamagne tha God on All the Smoke; Trump, for his part, guested on This Past Weekend with Theo Von and Flagrant — though his team has incorporated podcast or streamer interviews for some time, having sat for interviews with “bro” culture heroes, including YouTuber Logan Paul in June and live streamer Adin Ross in August.
The poll, which asked 1,000 respondents about the candidates’ podcast appearances, showed that nearly 72 percent said they had not seen Harris on a podcast, and 77.5 percent said they had not seen a Trump appearance. For those who heard Harris on a podcast, 51 percent said that what they saw made them less likely to vote for her versus 34 percent who said it made them more likely to vote for her; 13 percent said their vote plans remained unchanged. For Trump, the same questions regarding voting plans after hearing his podcast interviews showed 49.5 percent said they are now more likely to vote for the former president and 28 percent said they’re less likely to vote for him; 21.5 percent said their vote remains the same.
The poll’s methodology may answer questions about the dismal numbers for both candidates’ reach in making these podcast appearances. Harris and Trump were both courting a younger demographic when strategizing around non-traditional news sources, and podcasts and streaming platforms are far more popular with young voters than with people in older demographic groups. The audience for Call Her Daddy, for example, is reportedly 76 percent women under 35. Yet the poll, conducted between Oct. 14 and Oct. 18, “was based on live telephone interviews of adults 18 years of age or older.” While the ages of each respondent and many other factors around those polled is unknown, the mean age of respondents is likely to fall in the 40–50-year range.
While these possibly dismal, but maybe as-expected, numbers could impact future campaign strategies around podcasts, it’s not changing the appetite right now for both Harris and Trump’s teams to gain a slot on the number one podcast in the nation: The Joe Rogan Experience. Trump is taping an appearance on the massively popular interview show on Friday after Harris had been reported to be in discussions with Rogan to do the same. The vice president’s team reportedly met with Rogan’s crew last week to discuss a possible sit down. Neither Harris or Rogan’s camp would confirm or deny the reports at the time; however, that was before Trump’s Rogan appearance was then announced.
The USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed Harris with a 1 percent edge over Trump, commanding 45 percent to Trump’s 44 percent support from voters polled; the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, so the results are essentially a tie between the two candidates.
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