Who would’ve guessed that Joe Rogan would heartily endorse a Texas Democrat?
As state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) mulls a bid for the U.S. Senate, the 36-year-old aspiring preacher may have stumbled upon an ace in his sleeve: a guest slot on The Joe Rogan Experience.
Talarico recently appeared on the comedian and UFC commentator’s ultra-popular podcast to discuss a new bill requiring Texas public schools to display the Ten Commandments. Talarico, who studies at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, is staunchly against this bill — and was invited on the show after going viral on TikTok, where he amassed nearly one million followers, for speaking out against it.
“This bill, to me, is not only unconstitutional, it’s not only un-American, I think it is also deeply un-Christian,” Talarico said in a 2023 legislative session, in a TikTok pinned to his profile that has garnered 6.8 million views. Lawmakers tried to pass a version of the Ten Commandments bill in 2023, but it died in the House. This time, it sailed through to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, where it’s been signed and will take effect soon.
In their 2.5-hour-long talk (Who is watching all that? Apparently, half a million people.), the two men broach theology and policy, discussing the Ten Commandments, abortion bans, Christian nationalism, the spirituality of AI, and student loan forgiveness (“I am a big fan of that,” Rogan says).
“You need to run for president,” Rogan, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 race, told Talarico at the end of the episode. “We need someone who’s actually a good person.”
Rogan has become something of a figurehead for an increasingly young, aggressively online generation of men. Not explicitly political, his podcast describes itself as “a destination for open dialogue,” according to Rogan’s website, and tackles subjects like comedy, science, sports, and lifestyle. He’s hosted a mind-boggling array of guests over the years, from politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump, to scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson and rock singer Anthony Kiedis — and has been hailed as an “unlikely political influencer.”
“(Rogan) speaks for a lot of people who don’t feel like they belong in either political party, and are rightly suspicious of a corrupt political system,” Talarico told POLITICO on Saturday.
This is, in part, because the Joe Rogan Experience has over 14 million Spotify followers, 70% of which are male. The cabal of podcast “bros” like Rogan and Theo Von find young male viewers “in the vacuum left behind by liberal media,” POLITICO reported in November. “(Rogan) and his podcasting compatriots reach a wider audience of potential political converts by de-emphasizing politics.”
During his campaign, Trump tapped into Rogan’s hyper-masculine base, and it proved fruitful. In the election, young male voters swung sharply to the right. And as Democrats puzzle over finding a liberal counterpart to Rogan, Talarico seems to offer a new answer: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.