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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.) NBA: * Dallas Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson: $67.63 million * Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler: $2.71 million * Orlando Magic owner Richard “Dick” DeVos: $2.40 million
Adelson, a Nevada physician who immigrated to the U.S. from Israel, has a net worth of around $50 billion thanks to the casino business owned by her late husband Sheldon Adelson. She has solidified herself as a major figure in Republican politics. During the midterm cycle, she gave almost exclusively to PACs, as well as a six-figure check for the Republican National Committee. She donated $25 million to MAGA Inc, the super PAC supporting Donald Trump, as well as $30 million to Republicans’ Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), and $10 million to another right-leaning super PAC called the Conservative Leadership Fund (CLF), FEC filings show. Through PACs including the NRSC Victory Fund, her donations ended up in the hands of campaigns including those for Sen. Pete Ricketts (R., Neb.) and Tim Scott (R., S.C.).
Dallas Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson gave $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee, according to a recent FEC filing, one of at least a dozen sports owners and sports companies that donated to the celebration marking Trump’s return to the White House.
Adelson has given $95 million to Preserve America PAC since July, per Federal Election Commission filings. Adelson and her late husband, Sheldon, gave a similar amount to a Trump-backed super PAC in 2020.
At five in the morning one week after Republican Royce White lost his 2022 Minnesota congressional primary, his campaign shelled out more than $1,200 in donor funds to a vendor 1,800 miles away not typically associated with political expenses—an all-nude strip club in Miami, Florida, called “Gold Rush Cabaret.” That is just one among dozens of outlandish but previously unreported payments that The Daily Beast has identified from White’s 2022 Federal Election Commission filings.
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The Orlando Magic, a Florida-based NBA team sponsored by Disney, donated $50,000 to the super PAC supporting Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign. According to records filed to the Federal Election Commission by DeSantis super PAC "Never Back Down," the Orlando Magic donated $50,000 to the group on June 26
That strong Republican lean is consistent with owners' spending in the 2018 and 2016 federal elections as well. A deep search in the Federal Election Commission database of campaign finances for principal owners, controlling owners, co-owners and commissioners from the NBA, NFL, NHL, WNBA, MLB and NASCAR reveals that this deep-pocketed group has sent $34.2 million (72.9%) to Republican campaigns or super PACs purely supporting Republican causes, compared to $10.1 million (21.5%) to Democrats over the past three elections. Less than 6% of contributions went to bipartisan or unaffiliated recipients.
He formally endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for president at a rally in Pittsburgh. This past May, he voiced support for Biden during an appearance on Fox News and then endorsed him in June. Cuban frequently spars on Twitter with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas. Yet when it comes to spending money on politics, Cuban is far more circumspect, according to ESPN's analysis of FEC campaign donation data. He made two donations totaling $6,000 in 1996 to support U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, and he donated $1,000 in 2002 to support U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California. That's it.
An extensive review of FEC records by The Ringer reveals that NBA owners have made more than $28 million in political donations to various causes and candidates since January 1, 2015. You will notice that is not an exact figure. Because many NBA teams have large ownership groups, we reviewed the contributions of governors with principal or notable stakes in their franchises. We also checked the donations of their spouses since political contributions aren’t always made in a governor’s name. Because of that, and because the FEC website allows for multiple variations on a person’s name and allows filtering only by state of residence and employer, the numbers listed in this piece reflect a minimum donation amount. Put another way, it is possible there is more money we missed.
Donald Trump may be beating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in fundraising towards November’s election overall in the United States… but that is not so in the NBA. Per our research from the Federal Election Commission‘s data, Trump is once again struggling with the NBA constituency, as was the case back in 2016 when donors from the league sided their financial contributions heavily to Hillary Clinton, who raised over $1.4 million from NBA donors.
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Billionaire Seahawks owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen this year has made his largest-ever foray into congressional politics, donating $100,000 to a group aiming to keep Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The June 14 donation, disclosed in mid-July, went to Protect the House, a committee headed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. It’s the biggest check Allen has ever sent to a federal political candidate or committee, according to a review of Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
Overall in the 2017-18 election cycle, Allen has donated $173,500 to Republican congressional candidates and PACs compared with $45,900 to Democratic candidates and PACs, FEC records show. The GOP tilt represents somewhat of a turnabout from Allen’s past political giving on the federal level, which has tended to be more bipartisan — and even Democratic-leaning in most years. In the 2016 election cycle, he donated $74,500 to federal Democratic candidates compared with $52,400 to Republicans.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) used political donations to pay for almost $15,000 in tickets for Boston Celtics games, winery tours and trips to Las Vegas, according to a McClatchy article published Thursday. Nunes, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, used money from his PAC to purchase Celtics tickets three times last year, according to McClatchy's analysis of reports from the Federal Election Commission and two watchdog groups.
Per data from the Federal Election Commission, Hillary Clinton raked in close to $1.5 million from people involved in the NBA business. We couldn’t find a single NBA donor to the Donald Trump campaign on the fec.gov website.