A study of the political party affiliations of pro athletes finds that NBA and WNBA players are almost all Democrats or independents, while Major League Baseball players are mostly Republicans.
The study, “Partisan Registration of Athletes by Sports League,” commissioned by VoteHub, examined the political affiliations of pro athletes in the MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA, and WNBA and found that baseball players lean toward the GOP. Still, that support dwindles when looking at other pro sports leagues.
Pro baseball players are Republicans at a much higher rate compared to other leagues, with 53.7 percent, while 36.4 percent claim to be political independents. Democrats are the big losers in baseball, though, with only 7.8 percent choosing the left-wing party.
The next most Republican league was the National Hockey League, which is closely split: 43.9 percent claim the GOP, while a slightly larger portion, 48.6 percent, claim to be independents. And only a tiny 5.6 percent were listed as choosing the Democrats.
The blue party, though, leaps to higher numbers in the three remaining sports.
In the NFL, it is the GOP that is on the losing team, with only 20.2 percent of players identifying as Republicans. However, the Democrats are still not the winners on the gridiron, as only 34.3 percent claim the blue, while a larger portion, 44.3 percent, said they are independents.
Even in the NBA, so-called independents prevailed among the players. The study found that 45.9 percent of male basketball pros identify as independents. That compared to 42.9 percent who back the blue. Meanwhile, the GOP falls to a dismal 10 percent among the NBA.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Republicans aren’t even a blip in women’s pro basketball and don’t really even register at all among the players. Meanwhile, WNBA players overwhelmingly identified as Democrats at 67.5 percent. And only 30.2 percent claimed to be independent.
“When combining the data of the five leagues, the share of independents is 41 percent, higher than the national average of 27 percent,” the study concluded. “This could indicate that political engagement is lower, or that athletes are hiding their true affiliations with the awareness that they are public figures.”
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