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 "We welcome the challenge, whether it be Oprah Winfrey or
anybody else," Hogan Gidley told reporters on Air Force One
during a flight to Nashville on Monday. "We welcome all comers."
Winfrey, 63, stole the show at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday
night with her speech upon receiving the Cecil B. DeMille award
for achievement and lit up Twitter with a surge of tweets
carrying "#Oprahforpresident" and "#Oprah2020."
She is actively thinking about a run, CNN reported on Monday,
citing two of her close friends. CNN did not name the friends,
who it said had spoken on condition of anonymity. At least one
emphasized that Winfrey had made no firm decision.Winfrey has
said in the past she is not interested in running for president,
but the Los Angeles Times quoted Stedman Graham, Winfrey's
longtime partner in business and life, as saying on Sunday that,
"It's up to the people ... She would absolutely do it."
Wearing a black gown to show support for victims, she used her
platform to promote the "Time's Up" movement against sexual
harassment and assault, throwing her support behind others who
have exposed sexual misconduct in Hollywood and elsewhere in
politics and the media.
"She had that room in her hands. It was like a campaign rally,"
said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior fellow at the University of
Southern California's Price School of Public Policy.
The nine-minute speech generated two standing ovations from the
Hollywood glitterati and prompted 220,000 posts on social media
mentioning the words "Oprah" and "president" in just 24 hours,
said Todd Grossman of social media analytics company Talkwalker.
After Trump won the White House in 2016 with help from his fame
as a reality TV star, it no longer seems far-fetched to consider
a similar campaign by Winfrey, an actress, movie and television
producer, and chief executive of her OWN cable channel,
political analysts said.
Winfrey, long associated with Democratic politics and
fundraising, would likely face a crowded field in the Democratic
primaries in the 2020 race.
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But given her connections, Winfrey might have a fund-raising
advantage over her rivals in liberal Hollywood, which is often
called an automatic teller machine for Democratic candidates.
"She's certainly a bigger celebrity than Trump ever was, especially
in terms of connecting with her audience. Obviously this has given
her an opportunity. What does she do next with it?" said Alan
Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University in
Boston who has written on the intersection of show business and
politics.
Trump benefited from his star power to win more free media exposure
than his rivals in the Republican primary and was able to run a
relatively inexpensive campaign.
His committee spent $343 million in the primary and general election
campaigns with the help of $47.5 million of the real estate
developer's own money, which he lent to the campaign and later
forgave.
Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, spent $585 million
including $1.5 million of her own money.
Winfrey could supplement any campaign with her own wealth. Forbes
estimates she is worth $3.0 billion compared to $3.5 billion for
Trump. She was raised in poverty by a single mother and went on to
host the top-rated talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for 25 years
before ending it in 2011.
Jeffe, the USC professor, cautioned against thinking of Hollywood as
a monolith of liberal Democrats. Besides the liberal creative
talent, Hollywood money also comes from the more conservative,
unionized trade and craft workforce as well as from the business
interests.
"She has credibility with all of them," Jeffe said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Daniel Trotta, Grant Smith and Ginger
Gibson; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Tom Brown)
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