Election 2020: Inside the political donation history of wealthy sports owners
espn.com
American professional sports owners have contributed nearly $47 million in federal elections since 2015, according to research by ESPN in partnership with FiveThirtyEight, including $10 million to Republican causes and $1.9 million to Democratic causes so far in the 2020 election cycle.
That strong Republican lean is consistent with owners' spending in the 2018 and 2016 federal elections as well. A deep search in the Federal Election Commission database of campaign finances for principal owners, controlling owners, co-owners and commissioners from the NBA, NFL, NHL, WNBA, MLB and NASCAR reveals that this deep-pocketed group has sent $34.2 million (72.9%) to Republican campaigns or super PACs purely supporting Republican causes, compared to $10.1 million (21.5%) to Democrats over the past three elections. Less than 6% of contributions went to bipartisan or unaffiliated recipients.
The research includes more than 160 owners and commissioners spanning 125 teams, though no list of this kind can be completely comprehensive. Only current owners in each league and only their contributions while they have been involved with their franchises were included. Spouses and relatives were not considered unless they also play a controlling role in the ownership group. If a contribution appeared to be from an owner but could not be confirmed, it was not included. And, as is the case with many millionaires and billionaires, owners have a number of ways to hide their political spending.
Of the 160 owners and commissioners in ESPN's database, 74 contributed a majority of their publicly searchable funds to Republican campaigns, with 48 donating a majority to Democrats and the rest sending most of their money to causes that aren't fully aligned with either party.
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Larger political donations? 40 owners have donated at least $100,000 to Republican causes over the six-year period, compared to 23 owners topping $100,000 to Democrats, helping lead to these splits:
In total, here is the election-cycle contribution breakdown for owners and commissioners for these leagues:
2016: $12,940,514 Republican | $4,065,093 Democrat
2018: $11,282,570 Republican | $4,174,212 Democrat
2020: $10,022,931 Republican | $1,874,333 Democrat
SNIP
Thirteen owners have contributed directly to Trump's campaign or Trump super PACs in the 2020 election cycle, with contributions adding up to $1,746,423. That list of owners includes:
Bill Foley (Vegas Golden Knights), Bill Hornbuckle (Las Vegas Aces), Charles Johnson (San Francisco Giants), Dan Devos (Orlando Magic), Jack Roush (NASCAR), James Dolan (New York Knicks and New York Rangers), Kelly Loeffler (Atlanta Dream), Mike Brown (Cincinnati Bengals), Peter Karmanos (Carolina Hurricanes), Robert Plummer (Los Angeles Dodgers), Roger Penske (Team Penske) Tilman Fertitta (Houston Rockets) and Todd Ricketts (Chicago Cubs)
MUCH MORE AT THE LINK
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30155186/election-2020-political-donation-history-wealthy-sports-owners
