With control of Congress on the line, the billionaires who own U.S. pro sports teams have spent more than $100 million—mostly going to Republicans—attempting to influence the outcome in Tuesday’s elections.

Front Office Sports conducted an extensive analysis of the federal political donations from team owners in major U.S. sports leagues, plus other sports figures who opened their wallets. Here are our biggest takeaways.

—Amanda Christovich, Margaret Fleming, Eli Kronenberg, Katie Krzaczek, and Dennis Young

First Up

Big 4’s Biggest Midterm Election Spenders

While the owners across all U.S. sports leagues combined to spend more than $100 million for the midterms, the majority of those contributions came from one person. 

Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson, a well-known conservative donor and supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, leads all sports owners in midterm spending. She spent at least $67.6 million this election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by FOS. Adelson gave almost exclusively to PACs and also wrote a six-figure check to the Republican National Committee. (She spent even more in 2024, when she put about $100 million behind Trump’s campaign to retake the White House.) 

Other team owners across leagues poured money into the midterms, backing candidates, political action committees, and other groups and committees across the country. Here are the top donors across the four major men’s leagues, almost all of whom donated mostly or entirely to Republicans. (Red indicates mostly or entirely Republican donations; blue indicates mostly or entirely Democratic donations.)

NFL

NBA

NHL

MLB

Los Angeles Kings owner Philip Anschutz donated $509,100 to support House Speaker Mike Johnson. In total, Anschutz contributed more than $1.3 million to Republican causes over the last two years. His next-largest gifts after Johnson were three donations to committees that support Republican Senate candidates, amounting to just more than $500,000. 

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 promoting their interests that has spent just under $500,000 this cycle.

The majority of Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s $193,500 in donations went to the Great Lakes Conservative Fund, a committee that is spending millions—recently in concert with AIPAC—to elect Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race. Kraft has often supported Democrats, but he has been a longtime backer of Israel, which has emerged as a major issue in the Michigan race. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has campaigned there on cutting off U.S. military funding to the country.

Also notable: In the WNBA, team owners gave more than $540,000 in federal election donations during the 2025–26 midterm cycle, according to data compiled by FOS. The amount donated shoots up to close to $1 million when including owners of teams that are set to join the WNBA in the next few years, all of whom also own NBA teams.

ONE BIG FIG

Soccer’s Open Checkbook

$32.2 million

That’s how much hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, a longtime U.S. Soccer donor, contributed during 2025 and 2026 through the end of July, according to The New York Times. Griffin’s donations almost entirely went to Republican causes. 

His contributions dwarf those of other major soccer figures. For perspective, his philanthropic counterpart at the federation for whom the new U.S. Soccer headquarters is named, Home Depot cofounder Arthur Blank, spent less than 1% of what Griffin did on the elections.

Blank and other MLS principal owners spent more than $4.5 million on federal races for the midterm election cycle, according to data compiled by Front Office Sports. Current NWSL majority owners donated a little more than $400,000; however, when factoring in owners of 2028 expansion teams, that number jumps to more than $2.7 million.

Where Sports Figures Who Aren’t Team Owners Donated

Alongside Ken Griffin, big political donations came from several sports figures who are not the primary owner of any team.

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Former Sports Figures Also Drawing Major-Name Donations

Three sports figures running for Congress captured Republican nominations in the midterms—two for House races, and one for the Senate.

Former NFL kicker and broadcaster Jay Feely is running in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District; former Rangers and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira is running in Texas’s 21st Congressional District; and former NBC and ESPN sideline reporter Michele Tafoya is running for Senate in Minnesota. 

Their former colleagues in the sports world are injecting money into their races. More than a dozen active team owners donated to one of the three. Other high-profile names include:

Feely faces an uphill but surmountable battle against Democrat Amish Shah, who was the Jets’ team doctor for two seasons when Feely was the team’s kicker. Tafoya is polling behind her opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, in a race that has been dominated by a series of political firestorms in Minnesota. And Teixeira is running to replace Rep. Chip Roy, a House Freedom Caucus leader, in a district Trump carried by 22 points in 2024. Cook Political Report rates the race as “Solid R,” meaning Teixeira is almost certainly headed to Congress next year.

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