What Is 'The Daily Show's' Jon Stewart’s Political Party? Democrat? Republican?
Jon Stewart voted for Republican George H.W. Bush in 1988 — but things have clearly changed since.
Published Feb. 13 2024, 8:59 a.m. ET
After hosting The Daily Show for 16 years from 1999 to 2015 and stepping away for the last nine, one of late night’s most popular hosts of all time is once again behind a desk on Comedy Central.
Over two decades after first taking the gig, Jon Stewart is back as host (well, the Monday night host) of The Daily Show.
For nearly his entire initial run as The Daily Show host, Jon Stewart was encouraged to run for a seat in the Senate, House, and even for the Presidency of the United States of America. Most of the time he was encouraged by a Democrat.
Most every time he’s claimed not to be a staunch Democrat.
If Jon Stewart isn’t a democrat, what is he?
Every once in a while a meme of Stewart claiming he’s anti-political parties goes viral. While the comedian may wish for more than two options, he’s pretty aligned with the Democratic Party.
Stewart voted Republican in the 1988 presidential election between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis but other than that, he’s been more aligned with the Democratic Party.
If you’ve watched any episode of his Daily Show run or The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+ his politics are quite clear.
Stewart may not be a hardcore democrat but he’s definitely not a supporter of the GOP
Since initially leaving The Daily Show, Stewart spent years advocating on behalf of 9/11 first responders. He leveraged his celebrity as a presence on Capitol Hill to help get the Pact Act passed.
The Pact Act provides assistance to veterans exposed to harmful chemicals during their service, a topic Jon covered on both The Daily Show and The Problem with Jon Stewart.
Not a dem but probably a dem, not a republican so….
Anti-fascist is the label Jon most likely identifies with. Just listen to his podcast, also entitled The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast.
The January 19, 2023 episode, “The Far Right Goes Global: Anne Applebaum on Autocracy Inc.” is a 34-minute conversation with Anne Applebaum, a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the book Twilight of Democracy about liberalism, elitism, populism, and fascism.
The Far Right Goes Global: Anne Applebaum on Autocracy Inc.
Not a journalist? Not a politician?
In addition to claiming he’s not a Democrat, Jon Stewart is even more adamant that he’s not a journalist. But just because you say you’re not something doesn’t mean it’s true.
Jon always said The Daily Show should have a point of view. Those points of view happened to lean left and happen to be about politics. Couple that with satirization of the news of the day and, like it or not, Jon Stewart became a political journalist.
'The Daily Show' with Jon Stewart 2.0
Regardless of how he identifies, Democrats and people who support democratic issues should enjoy seeing Jon back on cable television.
It’ll be interesting to see how this version of The Daily Show looks like the initial version of the Jon Stewart-hosted The Daily Show. It'll probably still lean quite left.
