Wanted: Democratic talking points

The podcast rules are simple: “Be authentic, talk like a human, no debating reality, share your ‘why,’ and have fun.” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear drops a new episode of the Andy Beshear Podcast every week or so, chatting with Democratic leaders, business executives, and occasionally his own children to give a lesson on teenage slang. The episodes blend policy talk and life advice, recorded on a living room set where the Democratic governor of a conservative state laments the lack of civility in politics. Listener reviews on Apple Podcasts describe it as “less political than you might expect” and “so refreshing.”

But as of early July, fewer than 300 people had viewed the most recent episode on YouTube. The page had roughly 2,300 subscribers, and the most watched episode was the first one in April at just over 6,000 views.

Conservatives, meanwhile, are putting out hundreds of podcast episodes each week for millions of listeners. Republican lawmakers, cultural commentators, and former news anchors like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly offer hourslong interviews on political topics. Conservatives also appear regularly on nonpolitical podcasts, like The Joe Rogan Experience, which has interviewed political figures like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk.

The Democratic Party has yet to establish a comparable direct line of communication with its base, instead relying on traditional media to spread its message. After becoming the minority party in Washington following November losses, its members know something has to change. So far, their attempt to mimic the style of conservative conversation in America is drawing cringes from the right and exasperation from the left.

Democrats were taking notes during Trump’s podcast appearances and social media campaigns in 2024. A photo-op of Trump working a McDonald’s drive-through became symbolic of his “for the working man” persona. Despite the irony of a billionaire slinging burgers, the image stuck.

By contrast, the Democratic Party had ineffective messengers. Former President Joe Biden provided more gaffes than memorable lines in his final year as president. And former Vice President Kamala Harris waited months to fill out the platform page on her campaign website. Her interview appearances failed to galvanize voters. In October, an interview she did for the CBS program 60 Minutes lasted only 20 minutes after editing. A later-released unedited version showed her stumbling over words, failing to answer questions, and changing her answers. CBS parent company Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a Trump lawsuit that claimed deceptive editing.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, hopes to fare better with viewers and listeners. In March, he launched This Is Gavin Newsom, a long-form interview podcast he hopes will build his national profile beyond liberal listeners. Branded as a talk show to hear the other side, it has turned into a repentance tour of him announcing changes to his views. He has interviewed conservative commentators such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. He told Kirk that boys who identify as transgender playing in girls sports is “deeply unfair.” He told Bannon that he blames the Democratic Party for building a “toxic” brand.

Democrats scoffed at his backtracking, and conservatives scoffed at the rather obvious attempt to paint over his own pro-transgender record. While former Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California law that allows transgender athletes to participate in sports for the opposite gender, Newsom has had a long history of supporting other laws that have helped make California what he’s characterized as a haven for LGBTQ rights. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in April, Newsom said he had wrestled with the transgender athlete issue for a few years, and the podcast episode with Kirk happened to be the moment to admit it.

Newsom defended his strategy at the Bay Area-Silicon Valley Summit in May, saying his party needed a deep introspection. “I think we’ve got to square with our agenda and where the American people are. … You may not like what Charlie Kirk represents or what he’s doing, but we don’t have anything on the other side,” he told attendees.

“I get it. And also, I don’t get it at all,” Democratic strategist Matt McDermott told me. He’s a senior vice president at Whitman Insight Strategies. “I’m pretty darn sure the base of the Democratic Party doesn’t have an interest in listening to podcasts with the alt-right. I’m not clear on who he intended to break through [to] other than to make a case to voters that he’s not the California liberal that everyone knows him to be.”

Democratic strategist Mark Mellman also urged caution: “It’s one thing to try to convince that audience that we’re right. It’s another thing to try to ingratiate yourself with that audience by adopting their perspective. You can change offices, you can focus on people that haven’t been focused on of late, but you have to be careful not to give up core principles.”

At the Republican National Convention last summer, party leaders stripped down the official platform from 66 to 16 pages, giving candidates across the country a simplified playbook. Democrats don’t have a comparable catechism or even a catchphrase to summarize the party’s 92-page platform. To get everyone on the same page, Andrei Cherny, a former Democratic speechwriter, is collecting writers, analysts, and thinkers to develop a comprehensive book of Democratic policies moving forward. Cherny wants to call it Project 2029—a reference to the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy blueprint known as Project 2025.

According to one Project 2029 author, it’s not that liberal politics is bad or extreme, it’s just that it has somehow become off-putting for poorer Americans. Polling shows more working-class, nonwhite voters opted for Trump in 2024.

“For the first time in modern history the perceptions that Americans have of the two major political parties switched,” new Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin told NPR. “The majority of Americans now believe the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and the elites. It’s a damning indictment on our party brand.”