Stephen A. Smith has had high ambitions from the start of his career. The Straight Shooter host is one of the most popular sports analysts of all time and might be looking to use it as a political advantage at some point. However, he’s not willing to give up his high-paying career lifestyle for it.
Smith is one of the highest-paid sports hosts in the world and is earning $40 million off his contract with ESPN. You can also tell that he truly loves his job and doesn’t mind throwing in a good ragebait every other week to get a reaction from the fans or athletes.
However, it seems that he might have his eye on the presidential debate stage up next. Smith told The Hill in an exclusive interview that he’s excited at the thought of going up against the left. He mentioned that he’s salivating at the opportunity to take it against his opponents on the debate stage.
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“I do know the one thing that I would absolutely love to do is be up on that [presidential] debate stage … especially against those on the left,” said Smith. “I would give anything. … I can’t even tell you how much I salivate over that kind of opportunity,”
Smith Isn’t Ruling Out His Political Prospects
Stephen A. Smith hasn’t ruled any political ambitions out yet, but is loving his current career too much to leave it. The host of ESPN’s First Take seems to have a lot of confidence in his political prospects. He’s mentioned that he is continuously hearing about chatter from his friends and family about him running for office.
However, he’s unsure if he’s going to run for president in 2028. Smith did mention in the interview that he wants to have a profound impact on the political scene in America. It looks like he’s letting ambitious officials know that he wants to reach a place where they’ll have to come to him for clearance.
“I don’t know if I’m going to run for president one day,” he said. “But what I do know is I want to have a profound impact on who the next president is going to be. If you’re an elected official, I want to be a place you’re going to have to come through if you’re going to get to where you want to go.”
Even though Smith remains quite confident about his aspirations, it seems that the general public might not be completely behind him. Some netizens have urged him to stick to his current career and not try and run for president because he would fail.
Smith Is Getting More Political On His Podcasts
Stephen A. Smith has been taking a huge interest in politics as of late. He’s spoken about the democratic party multiple times on his Straight Shooter podcast and mentioned Zohran Mamdani’s campaign as well.
Smith has also praised Donald Trump multiple times before. The ESPN host even claimed his administration has ended more conflicts than any other administration that came before. It seems that he’s already picked up some favor from political officials to possibly support him if he ever tries a presidential run.
Published: Nov 25, 2025 01:27 pm