Kamala Harris needs Joe Rogan

Nia-Malika Henderson for Bloomberg

Like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden before her, Vice President Kamala Harris has amassed a list of high-profile Republican backers who have publicly endorsed her bid for the White House. Former staffers of President Ronald Reagan have said that if he were alive, he would back Harris over Donald Trump. More than 100 Republican former foreign policy and national security officials called Trump “unfit to serve again as president” in a letter endorsing Harris. Most notably and shockingly, former Vice President Dick Cheney (known to some detractors as Darth Vader) has also said he plans to vote for Harris. In her debate with Trump, Harris touted these endorsements and later brought them up in an interview when asked if she could speak to Trump’s voters.

“I think people want a leader who has common sense and tries to find common ground. I’m supported by over 200 Republicans who worked for both Presidents Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney. I’m supported by the former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Congressmember Liz Cheney,” Harris said in an interview with Brian Taff of Philadelphia 6 ABC. “And I think people are more willing now, in light of the hate and division that we see coming out of Donald Trump, to say, hey, let’s put country first, and I just think that makes us stronger and more healthy as a country.”

It’s clear what Harris is up to in name-dropping Republicans who support her, even when she isn’t asked about it directly. She still isn’t well-known to some Americans, particularly GOP and low-propensity, low-information voters. Getting the imprimatur of former Vice President Cheney is the very kind of validation certain voters look for, particularly when assessing a female candidate. And touting Republican support gives disaffected GOP voters who have soured on Trump a permission structure to back Harris. If Cheney, a rock-ribbed Republican, can do it, so can they.

But, it’s questionable how effective any of these establishment endorsements are with the demographic Harris is struggling to win over and that Trump is centering his campaign around: younger working-class voters, particularly men. According to a NPR/Marist poll released earlier this month, Harris trails Trump 35% to 69% among White, non-college graduate men. A group called White Dudes For Harris launched a $10 million ad buy in swing states that targets this group.

This is where someone like comedian Joe Rogan, the King of the Podcast Manosphere, comes in. Harris will likely never get Rogan’s endorsement — he backed Senator Bernie Sanders in 2020 and seemed to prefer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Trump this cycle. Most of the time, he sounds like a MAGA mouthpiece — he is proto-Howard Stern, the original shock jock. The popular host has trafficked in the kind of White grievance and toxic masculinity politics associated with MAGA and has a loyal following of millions as a result. He is an anti-vaxxer, has used racial slurs on his podcast, and embraced antisemitic stereotypes. He has also hosted Alex Jones, members of the Proud Boys and other controversial guests on his show. Many artists and podcasters have requested that their work be pulled from Spotify, which hosts The Joe Rogan Experience. If progressives had the power to cancel anyone, it would probably be Rogan.

But even though Rogan and Trump appear to be fellow travelers, Rogan actually seems rather meh about the former president. He has notably not had Trump as a guest on his show, for instance, even as the former president makes the rounds to podcasts targeting young men. Rogan’s endorsement of Kennedy sparked a bit of a bro fight between the two, though Trump now says they are just fine. Mmkay.

Rogan is a unique cultural figure who is in a stratosphere to himself. He is a self-made entertainer with his own cult following. He was there before Trump’s political foray, and he will likely outlast him. Quite simply, he doesn’t need Trump, which is why he wasn’t scared to mock the former president and say the following about Harris.

“They did an amazing job from the moment Biden drops out — forcing Biden to drop out. Whatever they’re doing, whoever’s writing those speeches, getting her to deliver them, coaching her — she’s nailing it,” he said on an episode that aired Monday. “She nailed that one speech, like, ‘Say it to my face.’”

Rogan said Harris had a “very good showing” in the debate and is “probably ahead right now” in an episode taped the day after. In the same episode, he suggested that Harris was maybe, just possibly, getting instructions via her earrings, a debunked conspiracy theory that has made the rounds among other right-wing influencers. So, anyone thinking that Rogan, who sounds like an average Trump voter, is going to suit up for Harris is mistaken. But he is the kind of cultural figure popular among the men and independents that Harris needs in her camp, and the fact that he praised her (even backhandedly at times) can’t be bad.

Harris has cultural hype in spades — Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas, just endorsed her. Of course, there is Taylor Swift, and there will probably be Beyonce at some point. (Bey has granted Harris permission to use her song, “Freedom,” for her campaign. ) There is also Jeff Bridges (“the dude”) and Charlagmane tha God, who attracts a similar audience of populist listeners who don’t fit neatly into ideological bounds. WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark has stopped short of endorsing Harris, but liked Swift’s Instagram endorsement of Harris. Harris should sit down with Stern for instance, who has been hammering Trump.

In her ABC debate, the one Rogan praised, Harris had this line:

“I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump,” she said. “And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country.”

Establishment Republicans don’t speak to a new way forward, but cultural figures representing non-ideological populism do.

Harris, who is running on policy ideas but much more obviously on zeitgeist, must make sure her campaign doesn’t cede that outsider ground fully to Trump in favor of the bland centrism and failed and dated policies that Cheney and his ilk represent.