Stephen A. For President Talks Are Entirely Media Driven, Voters Don't Want Him.

Nearly every major news network on television has discussed over the past week the possibility of sports commentator Stephen A. Smith running for president in 2028. 

On Sunday, Smith told ABC News he "has no choice" but to consider a run because unnamed billionaires continue to contact him, urging him to save the directionless Democratic Party.

Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist for Donald Trump's first administration, told Bill Maher last Friday that Smith is the strongest option among the potential candidates for the party. Skip Bayless, Smith's former debate partner, predicted this week that Smith could actually win a general election, no matter who his opponent is.

That's a lot of buzz. Yet that's all it is.

At this point, Smith's potential candidacy remains entirely media-driven. There is no actual demand from Democratic primary voters to turn the party over to the former 76ers beat writer.

An Echelon Insights poll earlier this week found Smith polling at only 1%, trailing pipedream candidates like "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart. Likewise, a new Zeteo study found Smith with the least amount of support from "likely primary" voters of 19 potential candidates.

In terms of whether a voter would consider or not consider Smith, he received a net rating of -18, well below any other name on the list.

"— considering vs not considering tells you way more than an early ballot test: cory booker currently leads at +68. stephen a smith finishes last at -18," said Data for Progress director Ryan O'Donnell.

There are valid comparisons between the current coverage of Smith and how networks covered Donald Trump in 2015. In fact, CNN helped legitimize Trump as a candidate with its excessive coverage of the then-still celebrity, albeit the coverage was mostly negative.

But as Semafor reporter David Weigel observes, Democratic voters don't want outsiders to run for office on their side of the ticket. 

"The Stephen A. Smith boomlet feels 99.8% media-driven, no actual demand from Dem voters," Weigel posted on X. There was a version of this in 2017, when there was a lot of media chatter about whether Dems wanted their own celebrity (Oprah?) - no, Dems love government and experience!"

And that's just that.

Talk shows billing Stephen A. as a departure from the establishment doesn't impress Democratic voters. They prefer an establishment candidate – just one who is more impressive than Kamala Harris.

Further, Trump had experience running large organizations and negotiating high-stakes agreements before running for office. Smith doesn't. He spent his entire career reporting on and shouting about basketball. 

Trump also established a winning message to restore America, rebuild the middle class, fix immigration, and put America first. What's Smith's message? What does he actually believe? Put simply, all we know about his politics is that he supports DEI.

Culture war topics don't win Democrats elections. In November, the internal polling firm Blueprint found that Harris's focus on culture war topics was among the top three reasons swing voters rejected her, along with the economy and the border.

Talk shows will continue to discuss Stephen A.'s potential run for president because he is good for business. However, those segments have not yet translated into support from likely primary voters.

And we don't expect that to change.