Pro Sports Owners Back GOP in Senate Battleground Races
This is part of a Front Office Sports series about sports spending in the 2026 midterm elections.
Several key battleground races will decide control of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
The Republican candidates in those elections have benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from major U.S. sports team owners, according to an FOS analysis of Federal Election Commission filings.
Sports owners in the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and NWSL donated more than $350,000 to principal campaign committees for Republican Senate candidates in battleground states. Team owners in those leagues spent less than a fifth of that amount supporting Democrats in those same races. Political action committees affiliated with the Republican candidates also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from sports owners.
Across the board, sports owners overwhelmingly gave to Republican Senate candidates over Democrats. The principal campaign committees for Susan Collins in Maine, Jon Husted in Ohio, and Mike Rogers in Michigan received the largest total donations from team owners. Roy Cooper in North Carolina and James Talarico in Texas were the only two Democrats to receive more donations to their principal campaign committees from sports owners than their opponents—though Texas Republican nominee Ken Paxton received sizable donations from the sports world to outside PACs from the sports world.
Some of the most prolific donors for these races among team owners were Los Angeles Kings and Galaxy owner Philip Anschutz, Broncos owner Rob Walton, Cleveland Browns and Columbus soccer owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, Magic owners Richard “Dick” and Dan DeVos, and San Francisco Giants owner Charles B. Johnson.
New York Giants chairman Steve Tisch, Seattle Seahawks owner Vinod Khosla, Minnesota Twins owner Jim Pohlad, and Chicago Stars owner Laura Ricketts all donated to support Democratic candidates in battleground states.
Other sports figures—including Northwestern University donor Pat Ryan, Secretary of Education and former WWE president and CEO Linda McMahon, and Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell—donated to Republicans in several key races.
These data points include donations given directly to a candidate’s campaign committee, as well as transfers that originated from other groups but were directed to the candidate.
For example, Giants owner Johnson donated $500,000 to Grow the Majority, a Republican joint fundraising committee focused on electing House candidates. That money was split up into at least 13 campaigns, in addition to other PACs and committees. Joint fundraising committees are required to include their allocation formula in solicitations for money, but donors can designate their contributions to go to specific candidates of their choosing.
Here’s how U.S. team owners and other influential sports figures donated in nine key Senate battleground races:
Ohio
More than a dozen sports owners donated to re-elect Republican Jon Husted.
The incumbent got the support of many Ohio team owners, including Cleveland Cavaliers and Sirens owner Dan Gilbert and Reds owner Robert Castellini, who also gave $50,000 to the Husted-aligned Ohio Flyer PAC. Walton, Dick and Dan DeVos, and Athletics and Earthquakes owner John Fisher are among the out-of-state team owners who donated to Husted’s campaign. U.S. Soccer patron and hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin also chipped in $3,500.
The Haslams gave close to $550,000 to two joint fundraising committees tied to the candidate, Husted Victory and Team Husted. Those groups also received a combined $125,000 from FC Cincinnati owner Carl Lindner III. Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown and Nashville Predators owner Bill Haslam also contributed to Husted’s joint fundraising committees.
A smaller number of team owners gave to Democratic challenger and former Senator Sherrod Brown.
Khosla and Tisch each gave $7,000 through joint fundraising committees, while Indiana Pacers and Fever owner Herb Simon gave $2,500 directly to the campaign committee. San Francisco 49ers owners John York and Denise DeBartolo York also donated to Brown in October. John and Denise, who are 77 and 76, are longtime power players in Ohio Democratic politics, and their son, principal Niners owner Jed York, recently served a six-game suspension from the NFL after being arrested in an undercover prostitution sting.
Scott Galvin-Imagn Images
Michigan
In a race where the headlines have been dominated by Democratic infighting over Israel, sports owners have overwhelmingly backed Republican Mike Rogers, who is trying to recapture the seat for the GOP with Democratic Sen. Gary Peters retiring. Rogers faces Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly came through a Democratic primary against Rep. Haley Stevens.
At least 10 owners of major American sports teams donated to Rogers, including a $100,000 gift from Patriots owner Robert Kraft to a PAC running advertisements on Rogers’s behalf. El-Sayed received little support from owners, but did get a $1,250 donation from Padres pitcher Lucas Giolito.
Read more about how sports figures contributed to Michigan’s Senate race.
Texas
Like many other Republicans, sports owners have largely held Ken Paxton’s campaign at arm’s length, with a handful of exceptions.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Texas Rangers owner Ray Davis donated $50,000 and $25,000, respectively, to Paxton-affiliated Lone Star Liberty PAC. Jones gave $3,500 directly to Paxton’s campaign committee through his $250,000 donation to Paxton Victory, a joint fundraising committee that also received $100,000 from his son, Jerry Jones, Jr.
A wider swath of owners donated to incumbent John Cornyn, who lost to the Trump-endorsed Paxton in the primary, including Walton, Heat owner Micky Arison, and Giants owner Johnson. Some poured thousands into his affiliated joint fundraising committees, including the Haslams, Buccaneers owner Edward Glazer, and Jerry Jones’s son, Jerry Jones, Jr. A few owners also gave to the pro-Cornyn PAC Texans For A Conservative Majority, most prominently Walton, who donated $500,000.
Democrat Talarico received around $5,000 in donations from sports owners, the largest backers being Minnesota Twins owner Pohlad and Chicago Stars owner Ricketts. Pohlad and Stars minority owner Jennifer Pritzker also donated to the Texas Democratic Party.
The Talarico campaign cashed checks from
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