Donald Trump maroon
Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

STUDY: How DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley failed to puncture Trump's dominance in right-wing cable attention

From June-October, Trump live events and interviews got more than twice as much right-wing cable airtime as those of DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley combined

Written by Bobby Lewis

Research contributions from Sage Hodil, Torri Lonergan, Harrison Ray & Rob Savillo

Published

This is the second in a series of data-focused articles on how former President Donald Trump has maintained a massive lead in the Republican presidential primary with the unwavering backing of the right-wing media machine. Read the first article here. 

The ebb and flow of the Republican presidential primary so far this year has played out similarly to each candidate’s coverage from conservative propaganda outlets. Various alternatives to former President Donald Trump have briefly emerged from the pack — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley — only to inevitably lose momentum. And at all times, none of them have been even close to capturing the amount of right-wing cable news attention that Trump consistently enjoys. 

According to Media Matters’ internal databases, Ramaswamy actually led DeSantis and Haley in candidate airtime — a figure representing all of a candidate’s combined interviews, live campaign event coverage, and paid programming — across Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News Network for most of the summer and early fall, a potential indictment of how badly the DeSantis campaign managed to miss its high expectations. 

Haley, meanwhile, has had a relatively consistent share of airtime -- though it's been slowly declining over the course of the year. Nonetheless, she has emerged as a competitor to DeSantis, who is still widely seen as the No. 2 contender in the GOP contest after Ramaswamy stumbled out of the summer.

  • A chart showing candidate airtime for DeSantis, Haley, and Ramaswamy on right-wing cable from Jun-Oct 2023. Jun: 2:21 Ramaswamy; 2:51 DeSantis; 1:29 Haley. Jul: 2:04 Ramaswamy, 1:56 DeSantis, 1:22 Haley. Aug: 2:39 Ramaswamy, 1:26 DeSantis, 1:09 Haley. Sep: 1:43 Ramaswamy, 1:32 DeSantis, 1:01 Haley. Oct: 1:22 Ramaswamy, 2:11 DeSantis, 0:59 Haley.

  • Despite the dramatic ups and downs for Ramaswamy and DeSantis — the former receiving over an hour more airtime in August than the latter, only to lose the edge within two months — both men had a clear advantage over Haley. From June to October, Ramaswamy received just over 10 hours total candidate airtime on the three right-wing cable networks, and DeSantis received just under 10 hours total, compared to Haley’s 6 hours. 

    However, there is a proverbial elephant in the room, and once he is factored into the equation the enormity of DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley’s problems become clear: Right-wing cable news is still obsessed with Trump.

  • A chart showing candidate airtime for DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, and Trump on right-wing cable from Jun-Oct 2023. Jun: 18:37 Trump, 2:21 Ramaswamy; 2:51 DeSantis; 1:29 Haley. Jul: 13:51 Trump, 2:04 Ramaswamy, 1:56 DeSantis, 1:22 Haley. Aug: 5:46 Trump, 2:39 Ramaswamy, 1:26 DeSantis, 1:09 Haley. Sep: 15:59 Trump, 1:43 Ramaswamy, 1:32 DeSantis, 1:01 Haley. Oct: 14:38 Trump, 1:22 Ramaswamy, 2:11 DeSantis, 0:59 Haley.

  • Month after month, Trump’s total candidate airtime on right-wing cable news massively overshadowed that of all of his major competitors put together. Nearly every month from June to October, Trump piled up nearly three times as much candidate airtime across right-wing cable as DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley combined.

    The only exception was August, a month which not only featured the first Republican debate (that Trump skipped) but also had an exceptionally crowded calendar for the former president’s multiple criminal cases. But even with those potential limiting factors, Trump still got a half hour more candidate airtime in August than the other three combined. And in September, Trump got nearly four times as much candidate airtime as the other three prospective rivals combined.

    Overall, Trump amassed nearly 69 hours of total candidate airtime from June to October, to the others’ 26 hours combined.

    In another sign of Trump’s dominance of the Republican primary field, right-wing cable is airing his major opponents’ interviews and events less and less frequently. In June, DeSantis, Haley, and Ramaswamy had a combined candidate airtime of 6 hours, 40 minutes. In October, it was down to 4 hours and 32 minutes. 

    In both months, Trump led all three combined by more than 10 hours.

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream and Kinetiq video databases for all original programming on Fox News Channel, Newsmax TV, and One America News Network for any of the terms “DeSantis,” “Haley,” “Ramaswamy,” or “Trump” within close proximity of any of the terms “phone,” “guest,” “interview,” “in studio,” “with us,” “with me,” “bring in,” “to discuss,” “to talk,” “calling in,” “drop,” “take,” “rally,” “event,” “press conference,” “stage,” “introduce,” “heard,” or “thank” or any variation of any of the terms “speak,” “react,” “join,” or “town hall” from June 1, 2023, through October 31, 2023.

    We also searched our internal database of all original, weekday programming on Fox News Channel (shows airing from 6 a.m. through midnight ET) for segments that analysts determined to include Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, or Donald Trump as guests or live coverage of any campaign-related event for DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, or Trump from June 1, 2023, through October 31, 2023.

    Finally, we searched transcripts in the Nexis database for all available programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “DeSantis,” “Haley,” “Ramaswamy,” or “Trump” within the transcript’s “guest” field or that appeared at least five times in all caps within the body of the transcript from June 1, 2023, through October 31, 2023. We then reviewed the text to determine whether DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, or Trump appeared as a guest or the network aired live coverage of a campaign-related event.

    For OAN on August 25, 2023, we reviewed transcripts only until 2 p.m. ET. Video and transcripts for the remainder of the day were not available at the time of publication.

    We timed interviews and panels, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host interviewed DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, or Trump either alone or with other guests; live coverage, which we defined as instances when the program cut to a live campaign-related event of DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, or Trump; and paid programming, which we defined as instances when DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, or Trump paid a network for a set amount of programming time. We included coverage only after DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, or Trump each officially announced their candidacy.

    We rounded all times to the nearest minute.