Democratic Candidates Lead Republicans in Podcast Appearances Ahead of 2026 Midterms, Rephonic Data Shows

Democratic candidates on the November 2026 ballot have made more podcast appearances than Republicans this year and have appeared on shows with about twice the combined estimated audience, according to a new analysis from podcast data company Rephonic, published Thursday, Oct. 22. The study counted 3,565 podcast appearances by Democratic candidates and 2,987 by Republicans between Jan. 1 and Oct. 10, with the shows featuring Democrats adding up to an estimated 75 million listeners, against 37 million for Republicans.

The findings were reported Friday, Oct. 23, by industry newsletter Podnews, which reported that 810 candidates have been on a podcast this year, and by trade outlet Podcast News Daily. Separate research released this month tracks how the podcast audience itself is changing.

How Rephonic measured the race

Rephonic, which says it tracks more than 4 million podcasts, took the 1,411 general-election candidates for U.S. Senate, governor and House and matched their names against guests on episodes published between Jan. 1 and Oct. 10, 2026. The company said it used AI to pull guest names from episode transcripts, then had two AI models check each match against show notes and transcripts, removing cases where a candidate was discussed but did not appear. That process left 6,845 appearances across 1,960 podcasts.

The company's "listeners" figure is a show's estimated downloads per episode, which Rephonic describes as close to, but not the same as, the number of people listening. Its "share of voice" adds up those estimates for every show a party's candidates appeared on. Podcast News Daily noted that the audience figures reflect typical episode downloads for the shows involved rather than verified listening to individual candidate interviews, and that they are not unduplicated audiences.

According to Rephonic, 84% of Democratic candidates and 74% of Republican candidates have appeared on at least one podcast this year. Republicans led on monthly appearances in January, 483 to 362. Democrats moved ahead 510 to 500 in June and have led every month since August, including 606 to 567 in September. Democrats led on share of voice in every month, with the widest gap in August, at 15 million to 6 million. May was the closest month, when Tim Burchett went on Joe Rogan's show.

Bigger shows, mostly friendly audiences

Rephonic found that 24% of Democratic appearances were on shows with more than 10,000 listeners per episode, compared with 10% for Republicans, though most appearances on both sides were on small shows. Podcast News Daily reported that the median podcast featuring a Democratic candidate reaches an estimated 730 listeners per episode, compared with 326 for Republicans. Rephonic also found that Republicans rely more on a few large shows: their five biggest bookings account for 55% of the party's share of voice, against 40% for Democrats.

Few candidates crossed partisan lines. Among shows with a known political leaning, 83% of Democratic appearances were on left-leaning podcasts and 84% of Republican appearances were on right-leaning ones. Just 5% of Democratic appearances were on right-leaning shows, and 10% of Republican appearances were on left-leaning shows.

In ten races Rephonic selected, Democrats led on share of voice in all six Senate contests, while Republicans led in three of four governor's races. Steve Hilton, the Republican running for governor of California, topped the individual list with 104 appearances, followed by Ro Khanna with 101 and Abdul El-Sayed with 94. The largest race gaps were in California, where Hilton's 104 compare with Xavier Becerra's 21, and Michigan, where El-Sayed's 94 compare with Mike Rogers's 26. Khanna had the largest share of voice among the top ten, at 4.9 million.

A podcast audience that looks more like the country

The appearance data comes alongside new research on who is listening. In an Oct. 20 post, Signal Hill Insights president Paul Riismandel reported that in third-quarter 2026 data from Demos+, a quarterly survey of more than 3,000 monthly podcast consumers conducted with Triton Digital, 33% of monthly U.S. podcast listeners identified as Democrats, 29% as Republicans and 39% as independents. The independent share has risen from 36% in the first quarter, while the Republican share has fallen from 31%.

That marks a change from 2022, when 39% of monthly podcast listeners identified as Democrats, compared with 28% of the general population, according to Signal Hill. In 2025, the podcast audience split evenly, at 33% each for Democrats, Republicans and independents. Barrett Media, which reported on the findings Oct. 23, noted that the data does not establish why the political makeup of podcast listeners has changed. Riismandel wrote that one likely factor was content and discovery, as more podcasts appealing to Republicans emerged and more Republicans started finding podcasts.

Survey data on voter influence

Both Rephonic and Signal Hill cited research from the podcast trade group Sounds Profitable, whose The Podcast Landscape 2026 study found that one in four likely voters who consume podcasts monthly say a candidate's appearance could make them more likely to vote for that candidate, while 9% say it could make them less likely. According to the group's Oct. 19 release, 60% of monthly podcast consumers say it is appropriate for politicians to appear on podcasts, up from 56% in 2025. The study was based on a nationally representative survey of 5,473 U.S. adults.

"One in four likely voters who consume podcasts say a candidate's appearance could make them more likely to vote for that candidate, with those who don't listen to political talk shows reporting the same potential influence as those who do," said Tom Webster, a partner at Sounds Profitable, in the release.

Signal Hill also pointed to its study with Voxtopica, in which 63% of registered voters who listen to podcasts agreed that "podcasts change my opinions on issues or topics in the news." Riismandel wrote that because the largest share of the podcast audience is now uncommitted independents, it is less clear whether that influence will work more strongly to one party's advantage.