Ambitious Democrats have a new game plan: Yak it up about sports

WASHINGTON - “I hate the Packers,” Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota said of his state’s rival football team from Wisconsin.

“Lamar Jackson was robbed,” grumbled Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, still bitter that the Baltimore Ravens quarterback had fallen just short of winning the NFL’s MVP award.

“The Sixers suck right now,” declared Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, lamenting the decline of Philadelphia’s basketball team.

The hot takes are flowing as a parade of ambitious Democrats talk sports, trying to accentuate their salt-of-the-earth credentials and forge stronger bonds with voters.

These Democrats are flocking to sports radio shows and podcasts as their party tries to correct for what it widely takes as an article of faith: that President Donald Trump won back power with help from young men who found themselves drawn to him through what was once an apolitical sphere of the media.

As their party reels from the impact of Mr Trump’s policies and struggles to craft a new strategy and message, Democrats have found that yakking about sports is perhaps the easiest way to reach sceptical or disengaged audiences who might not otherwise want to spend time listening to a politician.

Mr Moore is a regular caller on Baltimore and Washington sports radio, where last autumn he predicted football winners on Friday afternoons. Lately, he has had a lot of thoughts about where a proposed new Washington Commanders stadium should go – Maryland, obviously.

Mr Shapiro served as a game analyst for a University of Pittsburgh basketball broadcast in February. And Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky is already preparing to do the rounds of podcasts and shows at the Kentucky Derby in spring.

Voters, Mr Beshear said, want “candidates and people serving who don’t just sound like normal human beings, but they are normal human beings”.

“Talking about sports, going to watch sports and talking to people as you meet them about sports just shows that you, too, are a normal human being,” he said.

These Democratic governors are broadening their outreach to voters at a political moment when Mr Trump showed up at the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500, and is considering a posthumous pardon for Pete Rose, the baseball legend barred for betting on games.

“It takes the politics out of it,” said Mr Walz, whose career as a high school football coach was often highlighted after he became the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 2024. “When you go out there and go on those shows, it shows you’re a real human being, and it connects with people on something they care about.”

Certainly, Americans have long mixed sports and politics, and many of these Democrats were talking sports well before the last election. Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who once aspired to be a sports broadcaster, appeared on the Locked On Lions podcast last spring to talk about the NFL draft, which was held in Detroit.

But the post-election appearances have been especially striking, particularly because former vice-president Kamala Harris appeared on only a few sports shows during the autumn campaign.

The Harris campaign tried but failed to have her appear on popular podcasts hosted by sports commentator Bill Simmons and the Kelce brothers of professional football, according to a person who sought to arrange her media interviews. The campaign also failed in its efforts to book her with podcaster Joe Rogan and the Hot Ones YouTube show, which interviews celebrities as they eat blisteringly spicy chicken wings.

In recent weeks, Democrats including Mr Shapiro; Mr Moore; representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader; former governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, who resigned in scandal and is now running for mayor of New York City; and representative Ro Khanna of California have made time to chat with Stephen A. Smith, the ESPN personality. Mr Smith, for his part, has espoused so many thoughts on politics lately that his name has begun to show up in fantasy 2028 Democratic presidential primary polling.

Mr Smith, who agreed last week to a US$100 million (S$133 million) contract that allows him to delve more into politics, conferred instant sports credibility to Mr Shapiro, seeming to compare him to basketball superstar Michael Jordan. Mr Smith also said he would be willing to campaign for Mr Moore.

For his part, Mr Shapiro, who spoke to Mr Smith before the Super Bowl, correctly predicted that his hometown Philadelphia Eagles would be able to contain Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

And though Mr Shapiro revelled in the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory, his true sports passion is basketball. During a recent interview, he spoke at length about the ageing and oft-injured roster of the Philadelphia 76ers, a team he said had failed to adapt to modern basketball.

“Teams that are trying to win with like a Big Two or Big Three, as the Sixers attempted to do, aren’t having as much success in the league right now,” Mr Shapiro said. “That’s compounded when you have injuries that they do. It’s really troubling.”

Mr Shapiro’s unsparing analysis of his 76ers would not be out of line on Philadelphia sports radio – to which he has been known to call in as “Josh in Abington”. a reference to his home town north of the city.

Speaking hard truths about hometown teams – and where one’s loyalties lie – is a vehicle for politicians to convey authenticity.

“It’s very important for politicians – especially Democrats, if they want to try to reach the sports radio audience – they got to be who they are,” said Mr Matt Jones, a prominent sports radio host in Kentucky who considered, but then decided against, a 2020 challenge to Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader. “In the sports world, people don’t like fakes. They’re fine with you not rooting for their team, but you better not lie about who you root for.”

Indeed, sports bigamy can exacerbate a politician’s image as a flip-flopper – or worse, as someone willing to say whatever is expedient. Just ask Mrs Hillary Clinton, who at different times in her political life claimed to be a fan of both the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees.

Holding true to one’s sports loyalties can also backfire. Mr Bill de Blasio never gave up his Boston Red Sox allegiance, which became a problem when he was mayor of New York. Mr Chris Christie used to sit in the Dallas Cowboys owner’s box and cheer against the New York Giants and the Eagles – teams with huge followings in New Jersey, where he was governor.

Mr Moore presents himself as Maryland’s No. 1 fan of the Baltimore Ravens and the Baltimore Orioles. But he is also upfront about being a convert. He spent part of his childhood in the Bronx during the New York Mets’ glory years in the 1980s. In a 1996 interview with The New York Times, Mr Moore said he dreamed of being drafted into the NBA by the New York Knicks.

In a recent interview, Mr Moore said he had given up most of his New York sports allegiances – except for the Knicks.

“The Mets are still kind of like, you know, your ex-girlfriend, who you’re like ‘yeah, that was fun back in the day’, but there is no doubt that I’m married to the Orioles,” Mr Moore said.

He also delivered a monologue lasting one minute and 33 seconds about why Mr Jackson should have been named the NFL’s MVP in 2024 over Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills quarterback.

But that argument is rejected by another prominent Democratic governor, Ms Kathy Hochul of New York, according to her spokesperson.

Ms Hochul, a Buffalo native and a Bills fanatic, did her own round of sports podcast appearances during her team’s playoff run in January.

“You don’t have to say hi or goodbye,” she told The Buffalo Football Podcast. “You just have to say ‘Go Bills’.”

In states without professional teams, governors tend to focus on college athletics. Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut called the current men’s basketball team at the University of Connecticut “erratic”, but praised its women’s team as being “on fire”.

And in Kentucky, Mr Beshear, a Vanderbilt University alumnus, backs both the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville teams, despite their longstanding and intense basketball rivalry.

“As governor, you have two jobs when it comes to collegiate basketball,” he said. “No. 1, to root for your in-state schools, and No. 2, to root against Duke.” NYTIMES