BASEDPolitics

Activities

Libertarian pundits Hannah Cox and Brad Polumbo established BASEDPolitics in 2021 with the intention of introducing new audiences to the ideas of individual liberty and free market capitalism. BASEDPolitics uses emerging media and influencer marketing to share content that it claims has already reached millions of people across multiple social media channels. Both Cox and Polumbo have substantial individual presences on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and X, while BASEDPolitics appears to only exist on Substack. ¹

While BASEDPolitics shares articles written by Hannah Cox, Brad Polumbo, and contributor Jack Hunter, its home page exclusively contains videos with titles like “the SCARY Chinese cyber attack no one is talking about,” “Americans are thirsting over alleged CEO assailant’s mugshot,” and “Should women pay the mortgage?” ³

Together, Hannah Cox and Brad Polumbo host the podcast BASED Politics, which major issues from a libertarian-conservative point of view. Hannah Cox hosts the podcasts Histrionics, which discusses the rights, roles, and relationships of women from a centrist point of view, and Hannah Explains It All, which explores life and liberty in the modern world. Brad Polumbo, who openly identities as gay, hosts the podcast Damage Control, which pushes back against what he sees as the far-left’s damaging excesses of the LGBT movement instead offering a center-right approach to LGBT issues through tolerance and acceptance, and Brad vs Everyone, which offers an independent, center-right perspective on entertaining and interesting political stories. ³

Funding

BASEDPolitics is funded by donations from individuals, foundations, and businesses. While BASEDPolitics does not disclose its donors, tax filings confirm that Think Freely Media sponsored BASEDPolitics for $2,000 in 2023. ⁴

Stand Together Trust, which is part of Charles Koch’s umbrella organization Stand Together, also funds BASEDPolitics, though it is unclear the exact amount. In an article published by Stand Together Trust, it is stated that funding from Stand Together Trust and others allowed BASEDPolitics co-founders Hannah Cox and Brad Polumbo to quit their jobs to focus on BASEDPolitics. ⁵

Leadership

Hannah Cox is a co-founder and CEO of BASEDPolitics and a media consultant at Athens Media. Cox formerly worked as content manager and brand ambassador at the Foundation for Economic Education, a senior national manager at Equal Justice USA, and director of outreach at the Beacon Center of Tennessee. ⁶

Brad Polumbo is a co-founder and CFO of BASEDPolitics and the host of the podcast Brad vs Everyone. Polumbo is a Tony Blankley Fellow at the Steamboat Institute. ⁷

Jack Hunter is the secretary of the board of BASEDPolitics, where he is also a manager and contributor. Hunter is a film critic at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and a columnist for the American Ideas Institute’s American Conservative magazine. Hunter formerly worked as the director of new media for U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and is the co-author of Paul’s 2011 book the Tea Party Goes to Washington. ⁸