Sports Illustrated reports:
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has eyes on the White House and the Orlando Magic is playing a small role in making that possible. According to SFGate politics editor Alex Shultz, the Magic is listed as a donor of $50,000 towards Never Back Down Inc., which is DeSantis’ campaign.
Shultz is also reporting that this donation could possibly be one of the largest of its kind from an NBA franchise to a presidential campaign.
The Magic donation decision was likely driven by team governor Dan DeVos, whose family has been directly involved with the Republican party. His sister-in-law, Betsy DeVos, served as the U.S. Secretary of Education in President Trump’s administration.
Read the full article. Not only does the DeVos family own the Magic, the team plays in the Amway Center, a $650 million complex owned by the city but built in 2010 due to lobbying by the late Richard DeVos, the billionaire founder of Amway. Construction was financed in part with a new surcharge on Orange County hotel stays.
Orlando Magic appear to be the first NBA team… ever? to back a presidential candidate: $50k to Ron DeSantis’s Super PAC
I asked spox to clarify if donation should instead be attributed to owner Richard DeVos; response was “we don’t comment publicly on political contributions” pic.twitter.com/9B5yuvIUF3
— Alex Shultz (@AlexShultz) August 1, 2023
I am an idiot and somehow missed that Richard DeVos died in 2018, as someone just (helpfully) pointed out to me. Team is owned by the DeVos fam though. In my email to the team, I asked about the DeVos family, not Richard, so the team spokesperson’s non-response still applies
— Alex Shultz (@AlexShultz) August 2, 2023
team owners dumping money on presidential candidates (especially conservatives) is not new; in this case, it’s very odd that, when given the opportunity, the organization isn’t distancing itself from the DeSantis donation
— Alex Shultz (@AlexShultz) August 1, 2023
