In the “Podcast Election”, Trump talked to vastly more people

It seems in every election cycle a new communications vehicle emerges as a pathway to gaining voter engagement. Many are deeming the 2024 presidential campaign as the “Podcast Election” as both candidates appeared on high-profile shows.

Edison Podcast Metrics™, the only service that measures all shows across all platforms, can give us a strong indication of the reach achieved by each campaign from their appearances.

Per Podchaser – from the time Vice-President Kamala Harris entered the race in July until Election Day, she made an appearance on eight shows while former President (and now President-elect) Donald Trump appeared on 20. While we don’t have access to the number of listeners to the specific episodes on which they appeared, and surely these episodes garnered far higher listening than the average level, we do have the estimates for the average audiences for these shows. And clearly Mr. Trump spoke to a far greater number of listeners than Ms. Harris did.

Combining the average reach of each show they appeared on and then de-duplicating the results to account for listeners to more than one, the podcasts Trump appeared on reach approximately 23.5 million Americans 18+ in an average week, while the podcasts Harris appeared on reach only 6.4 million Americans 18+ in an average week.

Mr. Trump’s total is of course supercharged by his appearance on what is by far the largest podcast in America, The Joe Rogan Experience. But it’s worth noting that even if one removes Rogan from Trump’s calculation, Mr. Trump’s other appearances still would have far outstripped Ms. Harris’s.

The weekly reach of many of America’s biggest podcasts outstrips that of many cable tv networks and individual television shows. It is fair to expect that this rapidly growing channel will continue to be used in any national conversations or media strategies.

About Edison Research

Edison Research conducts survey research and provides strategic information to a broad array of clients worldwide, having conducted research in 66 countries. Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial® series has been the survey of record for digital audio, social media, podcasting, smart speakers, and other media-related technologies since 1998. The company’s Share of Ear® survey is the only single-source measure of all audio in the U.S. Edison Research is the leading podcast research company in the world, producing the only survey-based data on podcast listening in the U.S, Edison Podcast Metrics, and has conducted research for many companies in the space. Since 2004, Edison Research has been the sole provider of election data, race projections and analysis to the National Election Pool (ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News).