The 2024 presidential election has touched almost all aspects of American life, and professional sports have not been an exception. Betina Cutaia Wilkinson looks at the potential impact of athletes’ political endorsements on the 2024 election. New research shows that being a sports fan increases how receptive someone is to athletes’ activism on both highly and less contested topics, meaning that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s recent appeals to fans may be effective. 

The United States has a long history of professional athletes and coaches using their popularity to garner support for political causes. Among the earliest professional athletes who made political statements was boxing’s heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali who refused to enlist to fight in the Vietnam War in 1967. Decades later in 2016, a new wave of sports activism emerged with the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) donning clothing with the “Black Lives Matter” statement and the names of those killed by police to draw attention to police brutality and racism experienced by Black men. This movement developed as football quarterback Colin Kaepernick and so many other athletes across sports began kneeling when the national anthem was played at the beginning of games to raise awareness of racial injustices.

Athletes are weighing in on the 2024 election

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, we have seen professional athletes and coaches flexing their political muscle. Following a gold medal win at the Olympics this year, while speaking at the Democratic National Convention in August, US Olympic champion coach Steve Kerr highlighted that true leadership and love of country were the reasons why he endorsed Kamala Harris for president. NBA star Steph Curry also endorsed Harris during the same convention. As part of National Black Voter Day, 50 current and former NFL players endorsed Kamala Harris. Most recently, the Harris-Walz campaign has been running ads in NFL games including one with Tim Walz, former high school football coach, highlighting what it takes to be a winner and champion and contrasting Harris’ character and ability with that of Trump’s.

Photo by Deon A. Webster on Unsplash

It is fair to ask whether these endorsements and ads will affect voters’ views toward Harris and then behavior at the polls. Elite endorsements and ads play key roles in influencing turnout and voting behavior. When it comes to the effects of professional athletes’ activism, we know that approval of athlete protests is associated with greater Black political participation and exposure to NFL athlete activism on gay marriage topics can result in NFL fans’ stronger support for marriage equality. When sports and politics mix, sports fandom has the ability to offset political affiliations.

How athletes’ endorsements can persuade voters

As a scholar of race, sports and politics, I believe that endorsements and ads can be persuasive but only under specific circumstances. Analyses as part of a book I’m writing with Wake Forest University psychology professor Lisa Kiang reveal that sports fandom increases receptivity to athletes’ activism on highly contested and less contested topics. Among those exposed to football star Josh Norman’s pro-immigration remarks, NFL fans were significantly more supportive of immigration topics than those exposed to the remarks but who were not NFL fans. These results hold even when considering the effects of partisanship. We also found comparable results on a less divisive topic: criminal justice reform. Among those exposed to pro-criminal justice reform remarks by WNBA player Skylar Diggins-Smith and MLB player Sean Doolittle, respective sports fans were more supportive of their message statements than non-fans.

So, what do these findings mean for the 2024 presidential election? Our results suggest NFL fans will be more responsive to NFL player endorsements of Harris than non-NFL fans. NBA fans will be more predisposed to support Harris after learning about NBA coach Steve Kerr and NBA player Steph Curry’s endorsements. And the NFL ads aired during NFL games could be quite impactful. Tim Walz was a former high school football coach. Thus, NFL fans exposed to the ads may be more receptive to them since the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee has a connection to sports. Further, this ad aired at NFL games contains the voice of Tim Walz highlighting the values and character that football develops, and which are exhibited by Kamala Harris but not by Donald Trump. Contrasting the two candidates’ characters can be persuasive but may be more effective when shown to NFL fans (those in the stands) as their love of football and understanding of the character that it cultivates make them more receptive to the “winner” and “playbook” messaging conveyed by Tim Walz in the ad.

While there is widespread uncertainty as to who will win the 2024 US presidential election, one thing that we can be sure of is that the intersection of sports and politics is here to stay.

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• Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USAPP – American Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics. 
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