GOP looks for midterm enthusiasm boost from pro sports stars

Staring down a midterm Election Day that is looking increasingly bleak for Republicans, GOP candidates and President Trump are turning to major names in sports for a jolt of energy and publicity.

Several current and former pro athletes in recent weeks have stumped for Republicans on the campaign trail or introduced GOP hopefuls to crowds at rallies in states like Texas and New York.

It comes as Trump has been at the center of a major blending between sports and party politics in recent months.

The president has sought to capitalize on support from star athletes like New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart and 64-year-old former major league pitcher Roger Clemens as he rallies for GOP candidates across the country.

Several former athletes or sports figures are separately showing up on political tickets as GOP candidates, all of them backing Trump.

Former New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira is running for U.S. House in Texas’s 21st Congressional District. Former NFL kicker Jay Feely is running for U.S. House in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, and former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya is running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.

All of them have pledged support for the president while seeking to win their races.

Trump over the past year repeatedly has tapped into American sports culture in a bid to shore up support with his base, particularly in Southern states and among younger, male voters.

He’s attended several top-tier college football games in recent weeks, hosted the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team at this year’s State of the Union address and announced last week he would award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Clemens, the pitcher who had introduced him moments earlier at a rally in Texas.

“Trump’s role in this cycle has been to be the energizer in chief. And if you’re trying to get people excited, athletes and coaches play the perfect role,” said Loretta Lepore, a Republican communications strategist who worked in the first Trump administration.

“These athletes have high name ID and are really accustomed to motivational type speeches that can create energy. And the party needs that right now. Plus, it makes sense thematically while we’re in the thrust of football season.”

The GOP’s gravitation toward sports figures comes as polls show support for the president slipping among younger and male voters, a key demographic that helped Trump win the White House in 2016 and 2024.

There is no guarantee such a strategy will pay off at the ballot box, some observers argue.

“For your average political figure, they’re really interested in the imagery associated with sports, but this is not what drives where the campaign checks are flowing,” said David Niven, a political scientist and researcher at the University of Cincinnati. “It probably gives them a good feeling about energy more than it drives any votes.”

Many political forecasters expect sweeping losses for the GOP on Nov. 3.

But candidates on the Republican ticket in the midterm cycle who come from sports backgrounds could have cause for optimism.

An analysis conducted by sports and politics researcher Tom Knecht found former athletes and coaches who have run for federal office the first time won more than 70 percent of the races they entered from 1936 to 2023, and of that group, about 58 percent were Republican.

Teixeira is running in a heavily Republican district, while Feely and Tafoya are expected to have tougher election fights. Recent polling shows Feely within a handful of percentage points behind his Democratic counterpart and Tafoya trailing by more than 5 points.

“I’ve found athletes have a pretty conservative bent in just about every sport except for basketball. And we know sports have a lot of cultural values that map pretty well onto the GOP like individualism, self-reliance and masculinity,” Knecht told The Hill.

“Yet it seems like the more important thing for them [the GOP this election cycle] is getting people out to the polls rather than changing their minds.”

Extra points

The NFL surprised many in the sports gambling industry this week when it filed a petition with the Supreme Court urging it to clear a path for states to regulate prediction markets, which have broken into the sports gaming world in a big way. The NFL’s stance is a notable departure from the posture of other leagues, like MLB and the NHL, which in some cases have directly partnered with prediction market platforms. The Trump administration has signaled support for many of those companies in the wake of recent legal challenges they have faced from various state governments.

With an MLB lockout looming, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) highlighted an issue facing the Atlanta Braves, the de facto home club for many Southern states. Due to a tax law signed in 2021, the Braves are set to pay a new tax penalty, Britt said, “simply because they’re a publicly traded sports team.” Britt and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) this month introduced bipartisan legislation that would update the federal tax code to ensure publicly traded professional sports teams receive the same tax treatment as privately owned teams. The bill could get a vote during the coming Senate session after the midterms.

Legendary Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka died Friday. Ditka, 86, enjoyed a lengthy television career after he retired from coaching in the NFL and was outspoken on politics. A Republican, Ditka publicly supported President Trump as early as 2016 and said he was willing to stump for him at Republican conventions, though he was never invited to do so.

Jocks on the Hill: Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), the only current member of Congress to have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, answered some sports questions for The Hill.

Favorite sport:

“It would have to be golf. I mean it’s actually hiking and mountaineering but you probably don’t consider that a sport. I’ve climbed hundreds of mountains and I spent a lot more time doing that than I do playing golf but in terms of traditional sport … close behind it was baseball which I LOVE but was sadly never very good at it.”

Favorite team:

“Oh the Nats [MLB’s Washington Nationals] for sure, and that’s in the context that the Senators left when I was 8 years old, it broke my heart and they left again. So now I’m hangin’ on to the Nats for the rest of my life.”

Is there an athlete you admired growing up:

“In recent years it’s been Grant Hill more than anybody else. He’s just a wonderful athlete and community leader and father. I was very fond of Charlie Taylor when he was playing for the Redskins back in the day, too.”

Hate is a strong word, but is there a team you like to root against:

“Well, I mean … Dallas Cowboys. I’m a Washingtonian, ya know? In my older age I try to be respectful when they have talent but still … just no.”

Sports and politics are both full of cliches, is there one that resonates with you?

“Yeah, first loss is best loss. If things are going poorly in politics, shut it all, take the heat, get out of the inning, get out of the four down series just move on to the next one. It shows up in golf, too. When you miss that three-foot putt, you can’t think about it 30 seconds later it’s gotta be gone. Ya lost it, just move on.”

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