In his decades covering sports, Stephen A. Smith has seen a lot of cheating and dirty tricks, but it’s nothing compared to what he'd face in a longshot bid for the Democratic nomination for president. 

Those who run the nation’s oldest political party will not just hand Smith the car keys. In fact, they will do everything they can to destroy his nascent political career, even if that means destroying him.

STEPHEN A. SMITH SAYS HE'S STRONGLY CONSIDERING PRESIDENTIAL RUN

On Sunday, Smith appeared on ABC’s "This Week," after confirming last week that he is not ruling out a run at the highest office in the land. And after all, you might say, if a celebrity like Donald Trump can find himself residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., then why not Stephen A. Smith?

The answer to that question is that Democrats are not Republicans. 

Just ask Robert F Kennedy, Jr., who Democrats denied any opportunity to challenge Joe Biden in the 2024 primary, and who now works for Trump.

The party didn’t just try to defeat RFK Jr., they sought to humiliate and marginalize him. Smith should take heed.

Democrats do not go with the hot hand just to win. If they did, Bernie Sanders would've been their nominee in 2016, not Hillary Clinton. And they proved it again at Sanders' expense in 2020, when they pushed him aside for Joe Biden. Democrats want someone from their club, or at least someone they can control.

Stephen A. Smith is neither.

To be sure, there is a very positive case to be made for Smith as the Democratic Party wanders through the political wilderness, shivering in the long cold shadow of Biden’s incompetence and decrepitude.

Smith is obviously a gifted communicator, and more than that, he appeals to the Achilles heel of the party, working-class men. He also appears more or less immune to wacky woke ideas like men playing in women’s sports.

Smith has an undeniable everyman appeal. After all, almost by definition a sports analyst is the guy you want to have a beer with, and even in that world, Smith balances the brutishness of sport with high-mindedness and impeccable style.

His wildly successful career in the aggressive and high-stakes world of sports media is an asset for Smith. Before voters can agree with what a politician has to say, they have to want to hear what they have to say. Smith knows how to get attention.

But before we start designing the fully lit basketball court in the Rose Garden, it is worth considering the extensive tools that the Democrats’ elite have to thwart Smith, a set of tools that, had they had them, Republicans would have used to kneecap Trump in 2016.

First of all, superdelegates, which is to say unelected party insiders who cast ballots for the nominee at the party convention, play a vastly bigger role in the Democrats’ primary process than in the GOP’s. Added to this, given the dominance of Democrats in our major urban areas, local Democratic Party machines play an outsized role. 

It was Rep. James Clyburn’s get-out-the-vote effort in South Carolina cities that propelled Biden to his 2020 win, even though just a week earlier his candidacy had looked dead as a doornail.

The party elders pick the candidates, whether the voters like it or not. Let’s not forget that just five months ago Kamala Harris ran for president, having never won a primary. Does it really matter how many votes Smith can get in a party that anoints nominees nobody voted for?

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

In 2016, Donald Trump didn’t so much win the Republican nomination for president as he did take over the GOP, fundamentally transforming it in ways we are still seeing play out with young and working-class voters, and with tariffs and peace deals.

To become president, Stephen A. Smith would have to likewise. It wouldn't be enough to simply get the most votes for the Democratic nomination. He would have to fundamentally change the party itself, and the power structures within it, like Trump did.

As talented as Smith is, changing the Democratic Party is likely too tall an order for anyone. It is a machine designed to minimize voter impact. 

If Smith really wants to be president someday, he’d probably have a better chance running as a Republican. But that is a column for another day.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVID MARCUS

Two Democrats in the 2025 race to succeed term-limited New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy did not cast votes this week in Congress on the Laken Riley Act, leading them to be lambasted by gubernatorial candidates from both parties.

The House Clerk’s office recorded Reps. Mikie Sherrill of Essex and Josh Gottheimer of Bergen County recorded as "not voting" on the landmark bill, which would require illegal immigrants convicted of theft-related crimes be detained by municipal and state authorities.

The bill takes its name from a young woman murdered by an illegal immigrant in Georgia who had been previously arrested and released on lesser charges.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop exclaimed, "This is cowardly," in an X post.

NEW JERSEY USED AS ‘TRANSIT POINT’ FOR MIGRANT BUSES HEADED FOR NYC AFTER NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER, GOVERNOR SAYS

"We lose elections when we don’t have any core convictions… when we can’t explain why we have a view and why we believe in it. Hiding is not an answer that wins elections," the Democrat said.

"Mikie and Josh are the same again – If you don’t have the courage to vote for a bill then what does that say about your courage to lead as Governor?" Fulop added.

Meanwhile, former Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli slammed the two lawmakers from their right.

"Shame on [Josh and Mikie] for gutlessly ducking a vote on the Laken Riley Act today," said Ciattarelli.

On X, Ciattarelli said Riley "fought till her last breath against a murderous illegal immigrant, but Josh/Mikie didn’t have the courage to stand up to their extreme far left base."

Ciattarelli ran against Murphy in 2021 and nearly defeated him by Garden State standards, losing by less than three points. In November, President-elect Trump only lost the state by four points, leading the GOP to signal their optimism about flipping Trenton red this fall.

When the bill last came up for a vote, Gottheimer voted "yea," and a spokesman told the Philadelphia Inquirer he would have supported the bill this week if he had voted.

New Jersey’s three Republican congressmen – Reps. Christopher Smith, Jeff Van Drew and Tom Kean Jr. – all voted for the Laken Riley Act.

Democratic Reps. Nellie Pou, Frank Pallone, Herbert Conaway, LaMonica McIver, Donald Norcross and Rob Menendez Jr. all voted against it.

NJ RESIDENTS HIT WITH DOUBLED BILLS AS LAWMAKERS FUME AT MURPHY'S ‘ENERGY DISASTER PLAN’

Republican Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia – who is not running for governor – torched the pair on Wednesday with a quip:

"The Road to Drumthwacket is paved with flat squirrels who couldn't make a decision," she said, referring to the historic governor’s mansion near Princeton.

State Sen. Jon Bramnick, a GOP gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that a lawmaker’s first responsibility is to their constituents, not their next campaign.

"I think you have to have campaign activities come secondary to your responsibility," Bramnick said when asked about Gottheimer’s and Sherrill’s non-votes.

"The key question is – if you’re going to run – campaign activities must be secondary to your voting," adding that systemically it seems "the more [someone] campaigns the less they vote."

Bramnick, who is also an attorney in Plainfield, added that he couldn’t assume what was on the two Democrats’ minds in terms of their vote, but that immigration is a hot issue and often difficult to navigate.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

With the Laken Riley Act scoring 48 Democratic "yea’s," Bramnick said immigration is a bipartisan issue.

If elected governor, he said he would "follow the law" when asked how he would approach President-elect Trump or border czar-designate Tom Homan.

"Unfortunately, the Congress hasn’t done anything to [create] a path to citizenship for people who may have an opportunity to stay here," he said, discussing those who have lived in the U.S. for many years as otherwise law-abiding members of their communities.

"If America doesn’t like the law, change it,  but state-by-state shouldn’t change the law based on how they feel on the issue."

Sherrill and Gottheimer did not immediately respond to inquiries made via their campaigns.

Another Democrat in the race, Ras Baraka – mayor of the state’s largest city, Newark – also did not respond.

Baraka, however, separately indicated he would have voted against the Laken Riley Act if he were in Congress.