Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview with Fox News’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier, at 6 p.m. Eastern is, by any measure, a risk for her and a test of her ability to handle a potentially contentious interview in a unfriendly setting. This is the first time that Ms. Harris has sat for an interview on Fox, and it follows a series of interviews that the Democratic presidential candidate has given, including one to “60 Minutes.”

But she is hardly making history here.

A long line of Democrats — presidents and presidential candidates, governors, mayors, senators and members of Congress — have done precisely what Ms. Harris is doing. The atmosphere may be more polarized than ever — and some Democrats might argue that Fox is more fervent in its attacks on their party than ever — but Democrat after Democrat has concluded that there is more to gain than to lose in reaching out to Fox’s audience.

They have talked to some of the biggest names on Fox: Mr. Baier; Bill O’Reilly, who left the network in 2017; Sean Hannity; and Chris Wallace, who left the network in 2021.

“We very much think that bringing our message to audiences who might not agree with you on every issue is a very important thing to do,” said Manuel Bonder, the press secretary for Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Democrat from Pennsylvania who regularly appears on Fox shows and was on Ms. Harris’s short list to be her running mate.

Hillary Clinton, during her years as a Democratic candidate for the White House and as secretary of state, turned up on Fox numerous times, including sitting down with Mr. Wallace when she was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. Barack Obama spoke with Mr. O’Reilly in September 2008, when he was a senator from Illinois running for president, and as president, he did at least five interviews with Fox.