USA TODAY investigation found that 86% of sports team owners donated to Republican entities, Wisconsin's owners notably didn't

In the battleground state of Wisconsin, the political leaning of professional sports team owners in the state is fairly one-sided. At least, that is, if you follow the money.

On Thursday, USA TODAY Sports published the results of an investigation tracking the political donations made by sports team owners, specifically the principal owners and/or managing partners of 161 teams in MLB, MLS, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL and the WNBA. The results indicated that roughly 86% of the $14.6 million donated to federal campaigns and causes since Jan. 1, 2019, has gone to Republican entities.

Wisconsin’s pro sports owners are in the minority. When looking at the Milwaukee Bucks’ three principal owners – Marc Lasry, Wesley Edens and Jamie Dinan – as well as Milwaukee Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio and Green Bay Packers chairman Mark Murphy, none of their political donations at the federal level went to right-leaning candidates or groups.

As socially progressive as the NBA has been, especially over the past year, Lasry’s $69,100 in contributions to Democratic candidates – namely Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker – represents the most donated by any NBA owner whose team didn’t also donate to Republican candidates. Dinan was right behind Lasry in that regard at $55,600 pledged to Democratic candidates, while Edens is not on record as having made any federal political contributions.

Lasry and Dinan ranked second and third in the NBA for donations to Democratic candidates and causes, behind only Miami Heat owner Micky Arison ($89,600), who pledged a nearly equal amount to Republicans ($87,700).

These donations are not especially surprising considering the known political leanings of the Bucks’ ownership group, one that played a major role in drawing the Democratic National Convention to their newly built arena, Fiserv Forum. The Bucks as a team have also been notably progressive in their actions, including their players spurring a league-wide strike in August to protest social and racial injustices – a spur-of-the-moment move that was not run by ownership but was nonetheless heartily supported by Lasry, Edens and Dinan.

Still, the donations of the Bucks’ owners put them in the minority among their peers. According to the USA TODAY report, NBA owners pledged $2,535,700 to Republican candidates and causes, $351,770 to Democrats and $63,500 to industry and issue political action committees.

The Brewers and Major League Baseball haven’t been known to be as politically demonstrative as the Bucks and the NBA. That changed at least slightly in August when the Brewers made the decision to join the Bucks in their protest by also sitting out a game, part of a flurry of postponed matchups across the sports world in the wake of the Bucks’ strike.

Attanasio, like Lasry, Edens and Dinan, was similarly in the minority when it comes to political donations relative to his peers. He pledged $11,200 to the Kennedy-Sinema Victory Fund, which supports Democratic incumbents Joe Kennedy III (Massachusetts) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) in their push to remain in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also donated $1,250 to the Loan Syndications and Trading Association PAC.

MLB owners spent the most money on political donations, totaling $5,577,871. Of that, $4,791,935 went to Republican causes, $433,000 went to Democratic causes and $352,936 went to industry and issue political action committees.

Murphy, the president and CEO of the publicly-owned Packers, was relatively quiet in the arena of political donations. His $10,000 in contributions went solely to the Gridiron-PAC – the NFL’s own political action committee. The Packers were one of 18 NFL teams whose owners did not donate to either political party, though the ones that did skew heavily toward Republicans ($3,401,700 compared to $217,960 for Democrats).