With less than one month until the U.S. presidential election, all eyes are on the incredibly close race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The candidates are making their final sprint to earn the votes of the most precious group of voters – the undecided. A notable number of young people don’t identify with either of the major parties: 55% of those age 18-34 don’t identify with either the Democratic or Republican parties, according to Edison Research’s 2024 Infinite Dial report, and 38% of those age 18-34 consider themselves to be Independents. So how are the candidates reaching out to young people in these last few weeks before the election? Through podcasts. Since podcasts reach 48% of those age 18-34 in the U.S. weekly, (again per Infinite Dial) this medium is an ideal outlet for candidates to be heard.
In the past week, both Harris and Trump have made appearances on prominent podcasts, signaling a strategic move by the campaigns to tap into new, and presumably younger, audiences. We can use data from Edison Podcast Metrics™ to get a sense for the strategies of the two campaigns.
This week VP Harris talked with Alex Cooper on the wildly successful Call Her Daddy. Over the past year, this show ranks in seventh place among all U.S. podcasts in weekly audience, third among all women, and second among women ages 18-29. The Harris campaign seems to be zooming in on the youth vote.
Before that, Harris was a guest on All the Smoke. Hosted by two former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, the show commands 86th place in Edison’s rankings of all podcasts’ average weekly audience, and 18th among African-Americans. Smoke’s audience is overwhelmingly male (89%), mostly ages 25-44, suggesting Harris may be aiming to go on shows that can help shore up support and turnout from young, non-white men.
Former President Trump has also appeared on several podcasts as of late, such as This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von (ranks #9 over the past year) and the Lex Fridman Podcast (ranks #58). Both of these successful shows over-deliver for younger white men. This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von ranks #5 among men 18-34 and Lex Fridman Podcast ranks #36 among white men.
The Trump campaign appears to be targeting shows in a very similar strain as the Harris campaign, seemingly hoping to reach young, persuadable voters, just differing on the makeup of the audience. And some of these shows are no doubt benefiting from being introduced to some new listeners that these high-profile guests have attracted, as well.
Edison Podcast Metrics is the only service that allows a look at the entire podcasting space in the U.S. If you need to understand who you will reach by appearing on any given podcast, or have any questions regarding the podcasting space, Edison Research produces the data to drive these key insights. You can reach us at info@edisonresearch.com
