Tuning In to the Gender Gap Election
In today’s media landscape, where personality-driven content often holds more influence than traditional mainstream media, Donald Trump has capitalized on the formerly untapped power of podcasts.
This past week, the former president and Sen. JD Vance both sat for hours-long tapings with UFC commentator-turned-podcaster Joe Rogan for his eponymous show — just the latest (and greatest) stop along the campaign’s digital tour. Trump and Vance also taped separate episodes of comedian Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend, and the former president has been a guest on the comedy podcast Flagrant and sat for interviews with livestreamer Adin Ross and wrestler and YouTube star Logan Paul earlier this year.
In a race that was defined in previous months by Vice President Kamala Harris’s stingy, scripted media appearances, the hours and hours of content provided by Trump and Vance in recent weeks is telling. They’re clearly eager to sit down for a conversation with various podcast hosts — and, by extension, for a conversation with the show’s audience — and they’re having fun while doing so.
The interviews touch on campaign issues, but they move beyond rehearsed stump speeches or canned policy responses. Harris tried to seem relatable by awkwardly sipping a beer with Stephen Colbert on late-night TV. By comparison, Trump and Vance haven’t touched a drop through their hours of interviews, but they’ve worked to present themselves as the candidates with whom voters feel they could have a beer (and a coherent conversation). The podcasts aren’t staged photo-ops; they’re genuine opportunities to speak to Americans, to give potential voters a glimpse into the men at the top of the Republican ticket.
“Engaging with podcasters like Joe Rogan allows people to see the human side of President Trump that the mainstream media deliberately won’t cover,” explained Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz.
If it seems like Trump’s podcast appearances are geared more toward men than women — well, they are. This election has become a “gender gap” race, with polarization driving a sizeable wedge between men and women.
It’s been no secret that Kamala has struggled to win support from male voters, and she was recently caught on a hot mic whispering to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that her campaign needs to “move ground” among men. Trump, however, has been moving ground for months.
In the 2020 election, Trump earned 44 percent of the female vote, up from 39 percent in 2016 — but lost ground in the male vote. When up against Hillary Clinton, Trump won male voters by 11 points. Against Biden, Trump only managed a 2-point lead with male voters.
Even before Biden exited the 2024 race and the gender split became a defining characteristic of the election, Trump’s campaign had set its sights on wooing male voters. And what better way to win over gettable male voters than to meet them where they are?
Trump’s podcast strategy has given his campaign access to Americans who won’t necessarily watch a presidential debate but who regularly listen to their favorite comedian. Low-propensity voters in a handful of states will determine the election — but only if they actually go to the polls. With key demographics — especially young, politically unaffiliated men — Trump’s fireside chats could deliver him the “bro vote,” as some have called it.
Take Joe Rogan’s audience, for example. Eighty percent of his listeners are male, and more than half of the audience is made up of younger Millennials and older Zoomers. Politically, Rogan’s listeners are split fairly equally, with 32 percent identifying as Republicans, 27 percent as Democrats, and 35 percent as “independent or something else.” Combine Rogan’s listeners with the audiences of the Shawn Ryan Show and Theo Von’s This Past Weekend — the next most-listened-to podcasts in the nation after The Joe Rogan Experience — and Trump has the ear of millions of Americans.
And he’s not just reaching regular listeners of these shows — Rogan’s conversation with Trump has nearly 42 million views, eclipsing his still-unbelievable 18.1 million YouTube subscribers. With over 3 million YouTube subscribers, Von’s interview has been viewed 14 million times.
Not to be outdone, Kamala Harris has appeared on a few podcasts, too, including Alex Cooper’s raunchy Call Her Daddy podcast — Spotify’s biggest podcast after the Joe Rogan Experience and the most popular show among female listeners. Like Rogan’s show, the audience skews Millennial and Gen Z, though Cooper’s audience is heavily female and leans more progressive.
But even the Atlantic admitted that the vice president’s strategy is “the mirror image of the campaign choices that Trump made months ago.” And after rejecting Rogan’s invitation to tape an interview in studio, Harris won’t be moving ground with those male listeners. As the former president might say: nobody else does it quite like he does.
Mary Frances (Myler) Devlin is a contributing editor at The American Spectator. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
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