Dems warm to conservative media after rough 2024
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The once-fringe idea of Democrats appearing on conservative-leaning media is suddenly going mainstream in the wake of the party's 2024 election losses.
Why it matters: Nearly a dozen House Democrats tell Axios that party members need to increase their appearances on conservative-leaning and non-traditional platforms, or risk irrelevance.
- They say they no longer can look past the huge audiences offered by Fox News and conservative podcasts, whose messaging power became evident when Republicans swept the White House and both chambers of Congress in last month's election.
- "If half the country is watching and we gotta win 50% plus one, how can you reach anybody when you're not talking where they go?" Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) told Axios.
Driving the news: Most Democrats still prefer to stick to friendly outlets such as MSNBC or the more neutral CNN, where they can typically avoid confrontations and adversarial interviews.
- "I think one of the lessons learned from the 2024 election is that we have all but ceded alternative media to the conservative movement," said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).
- "If we have confidence in our message, we should be prepared to take our message to every corner of the ecosystem — including in politically hostile environments."
Zoom in: Some Democrats — inside and outside of Congress — have expressed post-election jealousy over how President-elect Trump used a hyper-focused media strategy to connect with specific voter demographics, particularly young men, by appearing on podcasts and YouTube shows with massive followings.
- Democrats say many of their own campaigns — from Vice President Harris' on down — focused too much on friendly outlets with declining audiences that already agreed with them.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) — who was re-elected in a district where Trump defeated Harris by nearly 10 percentage points — outlined a more local approach to this strategy.
- Golden told Axios that he goes on local conservative radio shows in Maine: "You've got to contest every corner ... Otherwise all they hear is what's said about you by the other side."
Zoom out: Adversarial media appearances by Democrats were rare during Trump's first presidency until several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates — including Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg — appeared in Fox News town halls.
- As transportation secretary, Buttigieg has gone further, using Fox as a venue to clinically defend Democrats' positions while skewering Republicans in front of many of their own voters.
- But only now — in the wake of 2024's election disappointments and amid calls for a Democratic rebrand— is Buttigieg's approach being widely embraced.
Between the lines: As cable news networks face declining viewership numbers across the board, Fox News Channel is still maintaining its relevance. It ended 2024 as the most-watched network during the election cycle — and saw increasing viewership among Democrats and independents.
- Fox News was the most-watched news network across the seven swing states last month's election.
Even progressives are beginning to embrace the idea of expanding Democrats' media reach: "My view is, as much engagement as possible is good," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Axios.
- Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), another progressive, told Axios that "as a gay woman, I have a particular view on the world and I actually think that it could be really helpful in this moment."
Several Democrats told Axios that revamping their party's media strategy should involve much more than simply going on conservative-leaning media.
- Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), co-chair of House Democrats' political messaging arm, underscored that appearing on conservative media is important, but it's not "where the jackpot is."
- "We need to speak to people who don't consume news as a hobby.... That's not just going on Fox News ... it's going on places of culture, sports, different things like that," he said.
The other side: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is among the Democrats who are more skeptical about engaging with conservative media.
- "People that watch Fox News have their minds made up about the type of rhetoric that they want to listen to," Crockett said.
- "God bless those that go on there, but I don't think that we're really changing the minds of the people that have decided that they want to watch that bullsh*t," she added.
The bottom line: Beyond simply going on alternative media himself, Moskowitz said he has actively been trying to persuade colleagues to follow his lead.
- Asked whether he thinks he's changed some minds, he told Axios: "I think I have, because I think you're seeing the number of people increasing that are doing that."
