The Seattle Storm endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for president and vice president on Wednesday, a rare formal backing of a political campaign by a professional sports organization.
Ginny Gilder, one of the team’s co-owners, tweeted Wednesday that she and co-owners Lisa Brummel and Dawn Trudeau are endorsing the Biden-Harris presidential ticket.
“We don’t typically endorse candidates, but these are NOT typical times. #Force4Change,” Gilder tweeted
“There is no doubt who we support in this election. For ourselves. For our family and friends. For our business. For our country. For our future. Vote for Biden/Harris,” Trudeau tweeted.
While sports team-owners providing generous donations to major political candidates is commonplace, a major American sports team formally endorsing a ticket appears to be an extraordinary occurrence.
According to FEC data, both Brummel and Trudeau appear to have made numerous donations to ActBlue, an online fundraising platform used to help Democratic candidates on both local and national levels, in the last year.
The Storm’s endorsement becomes the latest example of a WNBA team showing a commitment to progressive action. The league has seen both individual examples of political activism, like from Sparks wing Seimone Augustus opposing a ballot measure in Minnesota aimed at banning same-sex marriage within the state, and also league-wide action, such as the WNBA officially dedicating its most recent season to Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed last March by Louisville police.
This summer, countless players across the league also endorsed Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, after senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia and co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, criticized the league’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden has a greater than 99% chance of winning the state of Washington, and holds at least a 20-point lead in recent polls taken from the state.
The Storm took home the 2020 WNBA title, sweeping the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA finals.
Election Day is set for Tuesday, Nov. 3.
