Giants Owner Charles Johnson Leads MLB Midterms Spending

This is part of a Front Office Sports series about sports spending in the 2026 midterm elections.

Campaigns for the midterm elections in Ohio are going on the attack in television ads, and one group running a series of commercials is heavily backed by an MLB owner.

In one ad, an AI-generated likeness of Sherrod Brown, a former Democratic senator from Ohio, is depicted as a party-crasher eating birthday cake and wearing a party hat. In another, his AI avatar acts as a desperate ex-boyfriend standing in a teenager’s backyard and holding a stereo aloft.

The commercials were funded by Ohio Flyer PAC, a super PAC formed this year in opposition to Brown’s bid to take back the Senate seat he had held for 18 years before losing it to Republican Sen. Jon Husted in 2024.

Reds owner Robert Castellini donated $50,000 to the PAC, one of the 10 largest donations of any MLB owner this midterm election cycle. Castellini is the sixth-largest backer of Ohio Flyer PAC, and he ranks third among all MLB owners in spending on congressional campaigns and PACs the last two years.

MLB principal owners together donated just over $4 million to federal campaigns and PACs, and each of the six most generous owners donated to exclusively Republican and nonpartisan causes. Representatives for the five MLB owners who spent the most either did not respond to Front Office Sports’s request for comment or declined to comment. 

Giants owner Charles B. Johnson was comfortably the most prolific donor of the cycle, giving just over $2.6 million to Republican committees and candidates. A little more than $1 million of that went to the Congressional Leadership Fund, $525,000 went to the Senate Leadership Fund, more than $400,000 went to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and more than $300,000 went to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 

Several of Johnson’s contributions ended up in the coffers of individual campaigns. In total, his donations supported 35 Republicans running for a House seat and 19 Republicans seeking a Senate seat.

Cubs co-owner and board chairman Tom Ricketts was the second-highest-spending owner despite making just one partisan donation. That was a $322,100 gift to the joint fundraising committee of his brother Sen. Pete Ricketts (R., Neb.), who is fighting a hotly contested reelection battle against independent candidate Dan Osborn. 

Castellini was the third-largest MLB donor, contributing $237,100 to Republican causes. His largest single donation was $88,600 to the Republican National Committee, followed by the Ohio Flyer PAC gift.

Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick ranked fourth, giving $184,000 to Republicans. From that total, $44,300 went to the NRCC, and $42,000 went to GOP Winning Women, a joint fundraising committee for Republican women running for Congress. The committee has used Kendrick’s money for candidates in several battleground races, including Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R., Iowa). Kendrick’s wife, Randy Kendrick, is also a prolific conservative donor. 

Phillies owner John Middleton donated a little more than $119,000, the majority of which ($69,500) went to the joint fundraising committee of Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), who isn’t up for reelection until 2030. Notably, Middleton supported former Democratic Sen. Bob Casey when he ran against McCormick in 2024, but has, for now, flipped his support to the incumbent. 

Marlins owner Bruce Sherman gave $98,000, with more than half going to the joint fundraising committee of Rep. Maria Salazar (R., Fla.), who is running for reelection this month.

The largest single donation to a Democratic campaign or PAC was just $12,000, contributed by Mets owner Steve Cohen to New York Rep. Gregory Meeks’s joint fundraising committee.

Including minority owners, however, there is one Democratic megadonor who obliterates the rest of the field: Michael Bloomberg. The former New York City mayor is part of David Rubenstein’s ownership group that bought the Orioles in 2024. Bloomberg recently poured in $80 million to aid Democrats in their bid to take back the House. 

Twenty-four of 30 MLB owners donated at least some money to the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball PAC, a nonpartisan PAC that has spent just under $500,000 this cycle.

This series was reported and produced by Amanda Christovich, Margaret Fleming, Eli Kronenberg, Katie Krzaczek, and Dennis Young.