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Does the road to the White House go through Arrowhead Stadium?
Neither Missouri nor Kansas is a swing state in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. But the two-time defending NFL champion Chiefs are increasingly a focal point of the heated political cycle, in part representing a further sign of the league’s omnipresence and power in the broader culture.
Minutes after Tuesday night’s debate between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump, global pop music icon Taylor Swift announced her endorsement of Harris. Swift, the girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, cited her desire to be “led with calm and not chaos” in a post on Instagram that has generated more than 10 million likes.
That, in turn, put a spotlight on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, arguably the NFL’s biggest star and a close friend of Kelce and Swift, recently attending the US Open together. Mahomes is refusing to make any political endorsement.
“I don’t want my place and my platform to be used to endorse a candidate or do whatever, either way,” Mahomes said Wednesday.
He later added, “Whenever I’m hanging out with whoever, I’m not thinking about their political views or anything like that. I’m thinking about the people and how they treat other people. And I was with a lot of great people [last] weekend.”
At Home and in the Locker Room
Mahomes, however, has other conservative-leaning elements in his life. His wife, Brittany, has liked several pro-Trump comments on Instagram, and Trump has praised her, saying on Fox News, “I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better [than Swift], if you want to know the truth. She’s a big Trump fan.”
The quarterback, meanwhile, also came to the defense of teammate and kicker Harrison Butker, now the highest-paid player in NFL history at that position, after he made controversial comments at a Benedictine College commencement address advocating for women as homemakers and attacking LGBTQ+ causes. The NFL quickly distanced itself from the remarks, but Mahomes said “there’s certain things that he said I don’t necessarily agree with, but I understand the person that he is, and he’s trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction.”
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, meanwhile, has a lengthy history of donating to Republican candidates and causes. But during a May visit at the White House with U.S. President Joe Biden, celebrating Kansas City’s Super Bowl LVIII victory, Hunt offered a message of unity, saying, “The amazing thing about sports is how they can bring a community together. … There’s a lot that can divide us today, but for so many of us, sports provide a unifying joy that we all need.”
The NFL was also a notable storyline in the 2016 election cycle, particularly as Trump went after then 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial inequality. Given the unrivaled cultural combination of the Chiefs and Swift, it’s a virtual certainty that political discourse leading up to the Nov. 5 election will continue to flow through Kansas City.
No Safe Haven for Clark
WNBA rookie phenom Caitlin Clark was among those millions of people to like the Swift post on Instagram. In follow-up questioning from reporters, Clark offered a more neutral message of encouraging people to register to vote. But that wasn’t enough to keep her own Instagram comments from being filled with vitriol.
Unlike the more divided political leanings within the NFL, the WNBA has historically had a much more unified voice in favor of Democratic candidates and causes. WNBA players in particular had a notable role in the ouster of former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Georgia Republican, from that office, and she sold her ownership stake in the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream shortly after losing the 2020 election to Raphael Warnock.
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