Tucker for president? Speculation mounts after Fox News exit

After the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson left Fox News on Monday, public speculation has suggested that he may mount a 2024 presidential campaign.

“He’s running,” tweeted Stephen L. Miller, a conservative commentator and editor at The Spectator, a sentiment that many media figures on the right echoed. “It significantly changes the GOP 2024 primary overnight,” wrote Philip Wegmann, a White House Correspondent for RealClearNews.

“Keep an eye out for speeches in the Granite State,” tweeted fellow conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, referring to New Hampshire. “He’s always downplayed the possibility of running for president, but that’s an open possibility now,” wrote Christopher Rufo, a conservative writer and fellow of the Manhattan Institute, a leading think tank on the right.

Carlson, a high-profile media personality with international renown, hosted the show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News’ primetime 8:00 PM slot from 2016 to 2023. During this time, he was consistently ranked as the highest-rated cable television host in the United States, according to AdWeek, with his program being the most-watched in cable news history.

An estimated 3.2 million viewers watched Carlson’s show every night in March of 2023, per Mediaite, which political experts claim would make him a leading candidate for the Republican nomination.

“He’s a talented communicator with a massive platform. I think if he runs he’d be formidable,” said Luke Thompson, a Republican political strategist who worked for Jeb Bush in 2016, to Politico. This was echoed by others, such as Sam Nunberg, an advisor to Trump, who predicted in 2020 that “If Biden wins and Tucker decided to run, he’d be the nominee.”

On his show, Carlson commented on current events from a conservative and populist perspective, often against the mainstream position of the Republican Party and elected officials, such as on the war in Ukraine and the events of January 6, 2021. He was frequently targeted by Democrats, who utilized him as a symbol of the conservative movement to be critiqued, while his popularity attracted international attention from foreigners seeking insights into American politics.

Due to its popularity, Carlson’s show became a coveted appearance for scores of Republican politicians looking for national political exposure, and he frequently hosted exclusive interviews with top figures such as former President Donald Trump, Twitter CEO Elon Musk, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, among others.

Were Carlson to enter the 2024 Republican primary, he would be running against Trump and, prospectively, DeSantis, who is expected to announce his candidacy in May, and several other candidates. Were he to win the nomination, he would likely run against President Joe Biden, who is expected to announce his re-election campaign on Tuesday.

When previously asked the question of whether he’d run, Carlson has declined any interest. I have zero political ambition in life. My ambition is to write my script and that’s what you’ll hear from anyone who knows me,” Carlson told Semafor’s Ben Smith in July of 2022.

He added that “I don’t want power and I’ve never wanted power, [but] I’m annoyed by things and want them to change.”

Carlson, a co-founder of The Daily Caller News Foundation, has been contacted for a comment.

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