“How Harris and Trump Are Tuning into Podcasts to Engage Voters”

The Podcasting Blitz of Harris and Trump

The 2024 election may well turn out to be a watershed moment for political expression in the United States, especially through the relatively new medium of podcasting. The clear emergence of platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts as vital venues for political discourse is not a passing fancy but a real and tectonic transformation of the old ways of doing things. As the nation steels itself for what might become one of the most pivotal elections in its history, the methods used by Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to engage with the electorate via this new medium say a lot about how American politics is currently evolving.

In this piece, I argue that the podcast appearances of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are not merely informal interactions but rather strategic moves to cultivate two very different voter bases—Harris’s toward younger voters and Trump’s toward disaffected working-class ones.

Targeting Gen Z Women and Black Male Voters

I also argue that understanding the political significance of Harris’s and Trump’s choice of platform requires us to reckon with two interrelated aspects of American politics today: the youth electorate (or lack thereof) and the appearance of the online poor in electoral politics. Of course, Harris and Trump could not be courting two electorates more different in terms of their likely political preferences. Yet both candidates’ podcast campaigns can easily be read as a sort of “digital outreach” that eschews the appearance of an actual poor 18-29-year-old (in Harris’s case) or a poor 40-60-year-old (in Trump’s case) in a public rally.

The engagements of Kamala Harris with both Gen Z women and Black male voters place her campaign right in the middle of our modern American political era. Harris’s establishment of a presence on platforms such as “Call Her Daddy,” where she reached out to younger female voters, and “The Breakfast Club,” where she spoke directly to foundational figures in Black culture, speak to a campaign that is doing everything it can to earn the not-so-tender affections of its singular, diverse voter base.

Conversely, Donald Trump’s appearances on platforms such as Aiden Ross and Theo Von, where he spoke to and with younger male voters, and my appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” where I was able to engage with a live studio audience and the tens of thousands of viewers watching at home, suggest a different kind of campaign. Both seem quite able, or programmed, to speak directly to foundational portions of their campaigns’ respective voter bases.

Trump’s Strategy to Connect with Young Men

Harris targets young female voters, and rightly so given the history of female turnout. Women voted in huge numbers in 2020 and were crucial to Biden’s win. And with Trump gaining serious ground among young men, Harris is smart to focus on our side of the gender gap. More than any other candidate, she appears to genuinely understand the importance of female friendship and support. Whether as a necessary counter-narrative or true belief, she praises the value of building relationships among women.

In addition to young women, Harris also targets another important group: young Black men. And she doesn’t murmur to them in low tones. She speaks directly to these two demographics in loud, clear voices.

Trump’s selection of podcasts shows he understands the current cultural moment among young men. When he talks about personal issues—like a family history with addiction—he seems to be trying to establish a human connection with voters he imagines are feeling downtrodden and looked down upon. I imagine some of the people Trump is trying to connect with might identify with his family’s struggles. His strategy seems to rely on relatability, which is something that appears to be in vogue among younger voters. Both candidates are trying to be more relatable and authentic because that seems to be really valued by today’s electorate. Maybe it’s just the natural side effect of the current moment in which we are podcasting and selfies featuring no makeup seem to be a thing.

The Impact of Podcasts on Election Outcomes

Kamala Harris is working to win back the loyalty of an important demographic by focusing on policies that directly benefit Black entrepreneurs and by recognizing the profound influence of the Black church. Critics contend that Harris’s reliance on podcasts represents a shift toward entertainment in her campaigning, and away from the kind of serious discussion about policy that voters seem to appreciate. These critics have a point. I do sometimes wonder whether, in the quest for “relatability,” the Harris campaign has given up too much of its space for serious conversation about policy.

But as podcast appearances go, Harris’s turn on The Breakfast Club does not stint on the serious conversation front. It’s a nearly 30-minute discussion that touches on quite a few important issues. And the pair did give some airtime to one of those issues in the form of an emotional connection.

This transformation carries deep meaning for the typical voter. It makes political communication through this new medium more common and, I think, in some ways, more equal than what we had in the past. I think that could lead, in the future, to a political system that is more participatory, if not directly accessible, for more individuals than what we had before. Once again, I think that will likely have a greater impact on some historically marginalized or disenfranchised populations than on others.

The recent surge in political campaigning via podcasts shows how far we’ve come in the recent shift of campaigning through social media. Direct interaction with voters is what this new wave of political discourse builds its foundation on, and it is Trump and Harris who have chosen to dip their toes into this relatively new well. From here, we can surmise that if podcasting as a political mechanism succeeds for them, they may well usher in a new era of American political discourse that relies on this more personal, accessible, and engaging platform.

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