A political action committee devoted to convincing Tucker Carlson to run for president launched with an ad this week that claims “no one in America is more articulate” than the ex-Fox News star, while saying he’d “whip Biden in a debate.”
Since Fox shockingly ousted Carlson from its primetime lineup late last month, the network’s right-wing competitors have been tripped over themselves trying to convince the far-right host to come work for them. Carlson, however, is currently stuck in a contract with Fox until January 2025, though he is trying to force the network to release him as he sets to launch a new show on Twitter.
While conservative media outlets vie for Carlson’s services, the Draft Tucker PAC hopes that he’ll set his sites on a bigger goal.
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In an ad that debuted Thursday night and is set to run all next week on MAGA channel Newsmax (which has shamelessly courted Carlson and his fans), the group says that “Republicans need a new leader than can stand up” to President Joe Biden.
“And Tucker Carlson is ready to lead,” the ad continues. “No one in America is more articulate and pins down leftists in both parties better than Tucker.”
Adding that “Tucker always fought for us” like the late right-wing radio legend Rush Limbaugh, the 30-second video spot exclaims that “Tucker Carlson is witty, sharp, and mocks woke nonsense.” Images of a masked-up Dr. Anthony Fauci, transgender Biden administration official Rachel Levine, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) accompany the over-the-top narration.
“Tucker will whip Biden in a debate,” the commercial concludes. “Sign the petition. Draft Tucker Carlson for president.”
The organizers for the PAC, which filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last month after Fox booted Carlson, told The Hill that they intend to push the GOP presidential race further to the right. Especially since they find neither former President Donald Trump nor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “fully satisfactory” at this point.
“I’m very concerned that they’re going to not move the debate as far right as it ought to be,” PAC chairman Chris Ekstrom said. “If Tucker Carlson entered the race in a reasonable amount of time and just continued in the same territory that he was covering at Fox, I think that’d be a rude awakening for both President Trump and Governor DeSantis.”
Republican consultant Carlie Kolean, who serves as the PAC’s executive director, agreed with Ekstrom’s sentiment.
“I think it will move the conversation to the right, just in a macro way, with candidates taking more solid stances rather than being like a moderate Republican,” he told The Hill.
While Carlson has publicly dismissed the idea of running for the White House in the past and even recently joked about it, Ekstrom pointed out that the former Fox host has been “testing the water for quite a while.” He noted that Carlson spoke at last year’s Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, held in one of the early presidential primary states which is seen as a traditional stop for presidential hopefuls.
