There's a growing chorus calling on Oprah Winfrey to run for president, but political experts say it's unlikely she'd be able to nab a party's nomination, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"For Oprah Winfrey to have any chance, she would need to have Democrats get behind her, and I'm not sure that you'll see any potential front-runners step to the side," Rice University political analyst Mark Jones tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI.
The speculation started Sunday, with Winfrey's speech at the Golden Globes. The former talk show host used the Cecil B. DeMille award to speak about the #MeToo movement.
"A new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me too' again," she said.
While President Trump rode a populist, anti-establishment wave to the White House, Jones says it's much harder to take that route in the Democratic party, where length of service is something that's admired instead of abhorred, and a view that government plays a positive role in the world.
"You don’t see the antipathy towards career politicians that you see within some Republican circles that Trump was able to take advantage of," he explains.
This is far from the first time that Winfrey has been asked about political aspirations. In a December 2016 conversation with on Bloomberg's "The David Rubenstein Show," she said that she used to think that you needed to know a lot to be president
."I thought, 'Oh gee, I don't have the experience, I don't know enough. And now I'm thinking, 'Oh! Oh.'"
After Sunday's speech, Winfrey's longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham told the Los Angeles Times that a run is certainly a possibility."It's up to the people," he said "She would absolutely do it."