# Democrats are reeling. Is Stephen A Smith the way back to the White House?

The charismatic sports news host has become an unlikely force in a party that needs critical friends and fresh ideas

## The View

The View, one of the US’s most popular daytime television programmes, was a vital campaign stop last year for Joe Biden and . This week, it played host to a cable sports channel personality who might be nurturing political ambitions of his own.

Stephen A Smith was  what he makes of hypothetical polls that show him among the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

“I make of it that citizens, particularly on the left, are desperate,” Smith said in characteristically forthright style. “And I mean it when I say it: I think I can beat them all.”

Despite – or because of – his lack of political experience, Smith is  in a Democratic party badly in need of critical friends, fresh ideas and blunt truth-telling. The idea of him running for the White House remains wildly speculative – but speaks volumes about a shift in the US media ecosystem and a blurring of the lines between culture, entertainment and politics.

The 57-year-old, born Stephen Anthony Smith in the Bronx in New York, began his career in print journalism, writing for newspapers such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, then made his name as a broadcaster, especially on ESPN. Smith is now the co-host of First Take, where he shares provocative opinions on basketball and other topics.

His fans include , a media relations consultant and Democratic strategist who watches First Take “religiously”. Bardella said: “He is out there with passion and charisma and he provokes emotion and conversation and debate. He has become the singular most influential person in all of sports.

> He is out there with passion and charisma and he provokes emotion and conversation and debate

“We live in a time where our politics is shaped and informed by culture more than at any time in our history. There’s that old adage that politics is just culture downstream, and Stephen A is a good embodiment of that.”

Smith’s star continues to rise. It emerged this week that he had agreed to  worth at least $100m for five years. He will continue on First Take but reduce other sports-related obligations, increasing his opportunities for political commentary: in recent months he has appeared on Fox News, NewsNation and HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

The Stephen A Smith Show, which streams on  and , has featured interviews with , the House of Representatives Democratic minority leader; rightwing personality ; and , in his first interview since announcing his candidacy for New York mayor

The political chatter around Smith is also a symptom of the demoralisation in the leaderless Democratic party following last November’s defeat in elections for the White House, House and Senate. This week, for example, Democrats struggled to find a coherent response to  to a joint session of Congress.

After nominating Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in past elections, some in the party hunger for a fighter in the mould of Trump, an outsider not beholden to the traditional political establishment. And witnessing the rise of podcasters such as Joe Rogan and an entire “Maga” media ecosystem, they crave a liberal alternative.

In Smith, they see a bracing energy. He voted for Harris but has been outspoken in criticising  for failing to connect with voters and for prioritising niche issues – which in his view includes the transgender community – and failing to address the concerns of a broader electorate.

In January, appearing alongside the Democratic representative Ro Khanna on Real Time with Bill Maher, he  of why Democrats lost to Trump: “The man was impeached twice, he was convicted on 34 felony counts and the American people still said: ‘He’s closer to normal than what we see on the left.’”

Smith added: “What voter can look at the Democrat party and say: ‘There’s a voice for us, somebody who speaks for us, that goes up on Capitol Hill and fights the fights that we want them fighting on our behalf’?”

His gift for storytelling and communicating impresses Bardella, a former spokesperson and senior adviser for  on the House oversight committee. Bardella said: “His style of speaking, the directness, the boldness, the bombastic at times kind of PT Barnum-esque quality that he brings to the conversation is exactly what Democrats are lacking and exactly what made Donald Trump the showman such an appealing character to begin with when he arrived on the stage.

> His boldness is exactly what Democrats are lacking. Democrats would be wise to study what makes him so successful

“One of the things we learned from this most recent election is, that may not be the case and either things are more even than we thought or, I would even argue, the right, at least during the election season, took an advantage in the culture.”

> Who are some people who have ways of thinking and communicating that don’t sound like every politician?

David Litt, an author and former speechwriter for Barack Obama, said: “Democrats, for most of my lifetime, which is 38 years at this point, sort of assumed we are dominant in the culture, whether or not we’re dominant politically. One of the things we learned from this most recent election is, that may not be the case and either things are more even than we thought or, I would even argue, the right, at least during the election season, took an advantage in the culture.”

> Who are some people who have ways of thinking and communicating that don’t sound like every politician?
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