With the 2022 midterm elections approaching, one can assume clever political campaigns will be putting the power of podcasting, combined with the ability to geo-target ads based on the IP address of the listener, to use for persuasion and to motivate voting.
The 2022 Infinite Dial survey, sponsored by Wondery and ART19, shows that as of today, those who identify with the Democratic Party are more likely to listen to podcasts on a monthly basis than those who align with the Republican Party. Forty-one percent of Americans age 18+ who identify as Democrat have listened to a podcast in the last month — 36% of those who identify as Republican have listened to a podcast in the last month.
On top of which, when it comes to podcasts about politics, Edison Podcast Metrics shows wildly different listening patterns depending on which party one prefers.
The graphic below shows the ranks among all podcasts for ‘political’ shows or shows that regularly touch on political topics among Republicans and Democrats. Note that there are eight podcasts in the top 20 for Republicans that are political or deal with political topics.
Now note that on the other side of the table are the political shows (again, or shows that regularly touch on politics) that rank in the top 20 podcasts among Democrats: #1 The Joe Rogan Experience, #2 The Daily (New York Times), and #8 Pod Save America.
That’s it – only three such shows. Show #23 among Democrats is Rachel Maddow. At the top of their listening list, Democrats are consuming far fewer political titles as compared to Republicans and far more comedy and true crime. Listening to the conservative shows listed above (Shapiro, Bongino, etc.) is, not surprisingly, much smaller among Democrats.
Meanwhile, we can also look at the data another way – which shows are the most purely Republican or Democratic.
Among the larger shows, the show that has the highest portion of its audience that is Republican is The Michael Knowles Show from The Daily Wire. The show that is the most Democratic in composition? Perhaps not too surprisingly, Lovett or Leave It from Crooked Media.
So you have some questions about Election Data…
Watch this exclusive webinar with Edison Research Executive Vice President, Rob Farbman, in discussion with our US election data distribution partner, Reuters. Find out how our National Election Pool (NEP) coverage for the November Midterms translates into impactful reporting and graphics.
