Fox News Embraces a Different Kind of Guest: Democrats

It’s no surprise that the stage of this week’s Democratic National Convention is featuring the party’s biggest names. But some of them are also showing up in an unexpected place: the Fox News studio.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro are all scheduled to stop by Fox’s DNC set in Chicago for interviews. They’re part of a growing group of Democrats appearing on the news network popular with conservatives in the run-up to the presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

For Fox, whose credibility took a hit following a $787 million defamation settlement over its false claims of voting machine fraud during the 2020 presidential election, having Democrats on air helps make the network appear more balanced and fair, while juicing ratings. For Democrats, going on Fox gives them the opportunity to appear on the most-watched news channel and possibly win over some voters who haven’t made up their minds about who they’ll support in November.

“A lot of them are watching Fox News and are reachable, but they’re not going to be reached unless we are clearly and compellingly rebutting Trump talking points,” says Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat who’s been appearing on Fox since he was elected in 2020.

Fox News is the highest-rated cable news network both in daytime and prime-time viewership. The channel had an average daily audience of 1.33 million viewers from January to Aug. 11, according to Nielsen, Fox’s more politically liberal or middle-of-the road rivals, MSNBC and CNN, each had fewer than 1 million daily viewers during the same period.

The network said the number of prominent Democrats, excluding strategists, who appeared on its channel or digital unit increased 45% from June to August over the same period last year. The list includes some frequent targets of Fox News’ prime-time commentators, from Vermont’s progressive Senator Bernie Sanders to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Jessica Loker, vice president of politics at the network and senior executive producer for Fox News Sunday, says more Democrats are asking to appear on Fox as they look to appeal to a broader demographic of voters, especially in key battleground states. “You’ve got an election where it’s going to be decided by a very small group of people in just a handful of states,” she says.

Appearances by Democratic politicians benefit Fox, too. “We’ve seen the ratings show that when we have Democrats on, when they’re talking to our viewers, that the interest is there, that the ratings go up,” Loker says.

A Fox News spokesperson noted that the network has always had Democrats on air, citing repeated interviews with Newsom and White House national security communications adviser John Kirby. The Fox News town hall series also has featured numerous Democratic politicians, including Buttigieg, Senators Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren, plus former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Fox anchor Bret Baier says he introduced a segment called Common Ground on his show, Special Report, a little more than a year ago, wherein a Democrat and a Republican get questioned on the same issue.

“When I started it, it was not easy to get everybody to agree to come on together, even though the premise of it is pretty simple,” he says, citing high tensions on Capitol Hill.

Baier says the show gives people from both sides of the aisle the chance to speak about bills they’re supporting and issues they care about. He points to a July segment where Representatives Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, and James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, appeared together to discuss the Secret Service’s failings in preventing the failed assassination attempt against Trump. “There’s a lot that they disagree on and argue about, but they came on and had a really good segment,” Baier says.

Fox News host and former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino says showcasing politicians of different political beliefs can benefit news networks as well: “Building these relationships is important, and the media needs to do more to continue to rebuild trust.” Perino says there’s an appreciation for both bipartisan content and respect for Democrats who do come on Fox. She points to a debate between California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, that ran on Fox on Nov. 30 and drew 5 million viewers.

Bipartisan debates have been a strong draw for viewership for cable news, with the presidential debate between Trump and President Joe Biden scoring more than 51.3 million viewers across the 17 networks that aired it in June. After Biden dropped out of the 2024 race last month, Trump waffled on debating again, stating in August that he wouldn’t be in a planned debate on ABC News in September unless Harris agreed to first debate him on Fox. He later backtracked and is currently scheduled to appear at the ABC News debate on Sept. 10.

Although Democrats are appearing on Fox in greater numbers, they’re selective about which shows they go on. Representative Jared Moskowitz says it’s important for him to reach his constituents in the red state of Florida, many of whom watch Fox. But even though he’s recently received more requests to go on the network, he says he has his limits and doesn’t want to be used for conservative “propaganda.”

“I'll do all the news programs—every single one of them I'll do on Fox,” he says. “When we start to get into late-night entertainment, those are the ones that I stay away from.”

Moskowitz cited The Sean Hannity Show as an example of an evening program he won’t do. The Fox News website describes it as “candid, controversial and completely unleashed!” (Hannity, like many of the network’s late-evening commentators, continues to blast Democrats.)

Still, Moskowitz says more Democrats and Republicans should appear on networks that don’t necessarily align with their ideologies and get outside of their own political bubbles.

“You'll get tougher questions as a Democrat on Fox than you will on more favorable networks, but who cares?” he says. “Go take the tough questions. That's the whole point.”

Representative Glenn Ivey says he looks to go on shows with journalists, not just “people who are trying to make a point.” The Maryland Democrat has had positive experiences appearing on Fox anchor Neil Cavuto’s show. “You don't get a free pass, but he doesn't have a separate agenda of his own,” he says.

Ivey says part of why Fox may be having more Democrats on the air is to rehabilitate its image following its huge settlement last year in a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems Corp. The network had falsely reported that Dominion’s voting machines were manipulated to hand over the 2020 election to Biden. “That might have been a wake-up call that they might need to be a little bit more balanced and at least not dishonest in the news that they present,” Ivey says.

For Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, going on Fox lets him reach more people and give a personal shoutout to his parents, who are regular viewers. “They’ve played it straight up in all the interviews I’ve been on in the past year, and I always get to say, ‘Hi, Dad and Mom!’—it’s a Fox house. And there’s a lot of Fox homes out there,” he said in a statement.

Indeed, with so many viewers tuned into Fox, Loker says she’s hoping Vice President Harris will soon make an appearance on the network. “There’s an open invitation,” she says. —With Erik WassonRead next: X Doesn’t Mark the Spot for Trump and Musk