Kelly Loeffler: This is what happens when the liberal WNBA and a Republican senator clash

08/09/2020 Sports


A look at the figures shows why the antagonism exists. The WNBA players and fans are just on a different political planet than Loeffler. Moreover, Loeffler almost certainly sees political advantage for the fight.

While we may not know the political affiliation of every WNBA player, there is little doubt that the league is pulling left. The league has supported a number of organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, regularly bashed by Republicans. And long before most men encouraged sports social activism to the degree they do now, the WNBA promoted campaigns such as a Women’s March video and the Take A Seat / Take a Stand promotion.

If you examine the fan base of the WNBA, you can see that the WNBA does not really have to lose annoying fans who take causes from links.

A look at interviews and studies shows that WNBA fans are much more likely than the general population to be in groups that pay Democratically. WNBA fans are more likely to be women, are college graduates, and are Black adults. In fact, the limited data we have suggests that more WNBA fans are democratically paid than one of the major male professional sports classes (e.g., MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL).

Loeffler, meanwhile, is a conservative Republican. More than that, she has an election this year. Loeffler is involved in a highly competitive jungle primary in which all candidates from all parties will face each other. The top two candidates will advance to a runoff, unless one candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in round one.

Loeffler has to deal with one opponent in particular: fellow Republican rep. Doug Collins. Loeffler has been attacked by rivals as not conservative enough. Collins and Loeffler are trying to appeal to Republicans to advance to the runoff, and it’s not clear Loeffler will win that battle.
The interview Collins even ran with Loeffler. In an average of the last five polls of the race, Collins comes in with 23% after Loeffler’s 21%. The main Democrats (Ed Tarver, Matt Lieberman and Warnock) running for the seat are firmly between 6% and 14%, but most of the undecided voters are either Democrats or Independents.

Chances are high that Collins or Loeffler will advance to the runoff, and not both. Whoever appeals to the most Republicans will advance to that runoff.

Any issue that can prove Loeffler’s conservative bonafides is good for her. Calling players who approve of Warnock when trying to cancel cancellation culture helps them do so. Players are asked to stand for the national anthem, which is what Republican voters overwhelmingly want to do.

Loeffler is a fish out of water when it comes to the normally liberal ways of the WNBA. She can benefit from being opposed to them.

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