Athletes In U.S. elections
Dodger legend and current U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey. Source
THE BOX SCORE
Famous ex-athletes make outstanding political candidates, winning 74 percent of their primaries and 81 percent of general elections.
Former athletes who ran as political amateurs (i.e., never held prior political office) won 68 percent of their primary races and 73 percent of general elections. As a means of comparison, lawyers, who make some of the best first-time candidates, only win around 10 percent of their elections.
Most former athletes run as Republicans (58 percent), are White (69 percent), and almost all are men (99 percent).
More ex-football players run for office than any other sport.
Although ex-athletes make tremendous political candidates, few throw their hats in the ring. Of the approximately 35 million political candidates since 1936, only 93 have been famous athletes (.0000026 percent).
THE COMPLETE GAME
On March 5, 2024, two ex-athletes won their respective Senate primaries. Former first baseman and political novice Steve Garvey is the Republican nominee for California’s senate seat, and former NFL player and current U.S. Representative Colin Allred will challenge Ted Cruz in Texas.
Despite their primary victories, Garvey and Allred will be underdogs come November. Garvey has little hope of winning a state as blue as the Dodgers, and Tom Landry was coaching the Cowboys the last time the Lone Star State voted a Democrat into the Senate.
Garvey and Allred’s long-shot bids notwithstanding, athletes-turned-politicians are usually great bets at the ballot box. My research shows that ex-athletes enjoy an electoral win percentage unmatched by any other type of candidate save incumbents.
In this post, I invite you to…
play around with the data on athletes-turned-politicians (please look at NOTE II for tips on the optimal data-playing-around experience),
consider why ex-athletes make such great candidates,
take a look at my All-Star roster of athletes-turned-politicians, and
check out my Bad Beats list of famous athletes who lost their election.
NOTE I: The data below is drawn from my Electoral Studies article “The Glitteratti Government” (with Ray Rosentrater). In that article, we look at all types of celebrities. Here, I will focus exclusively on former athletes, excluding pro wrestlers. Athletes must have a modicum of fame to make it into this dataset; the member of Congress who was once the third-string point guard on their high school basketball team is out. You can find a full discussion of the methodology in the “Glitteratti” paper.
NOTE II: The following interactive Tableau figures allow you to filter by categories and get more information by hovering over data points. The figures are best viewed in full screen. To do this, click the expand button at the bottom right of the figure (see below)
Data on u.s. athletes in elections
Win Percentage
Ex-Athletes Win Percentage in U.S. Elections
The figures above show ex-athletes:
won 78 percent of the races they entered from 1936-2023.
win 74 percent of their primaries and 81 percent of general elections.
are really good first-time candidates. Amateur ex-athletes—those who have never held elective office—win 68 percent of their primaries and 73 percent of their general elections. As a means of comparison, lawyers without political experience—who are some of the best amateur candidates—only win around 10 percent of their elections.
History
Ex-Athletes in U.S. Elections, 1934-2023.
There are a couple of findings of note in the above figure:
Not many ex-athletes ran for office until the mid-1960s. The 1994-95 election cycle represents the high water mark with 21 athletes running.
The number of ex-athletes running for office has steadily decreased since 2010.
If we look at only amateur ex-athletes,
more ran in the 2008-09 cycle than ever. Since then, their numbers have declined.
If we look at amateurs’ win percentage in general elections, we see recent ex-athletes are generally less successful than those who came before:
1932-59: 83%
1960-69: 78%
1970-79: 90%
1980-89: 58%
1990-99: 75%
2000-09: 65%
2010-23: 33%
party and race
Ex-Athletes Party ID
Most ex-athletes (58 percent) run as Republicans.
Ex-Athletes by Race and Party ID
And most ex-athletes who run are White (68 percent).
The figure above shows that Black candidates are equally split between running as Democrats and Republicans, which is somewhat surprising given that only 7 percent of Black voters were registered Republicans in 2016.
office
Ex-Athletes by Office
The U.S. House of Representatives is the most popular office for ex-athletes-turned-political candidates (142).
For amateur athletes, big-ticket offices (the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and Governor) are the hardest to win. As one might expect, they fare much better in lower-profile races (e.g., State House, City Council, Mayor) where name recognition plays a bigger role.
2. Why ex-athletes Are great political candidates.
Name Recognition. Name recognition is a necessary and sometimes sufficient condition for electoral victory. Greg Brophy, a Colorado Republican political consultant, remarked on the allure of Bronco Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway as a candidate, “as hard as it is to raise money in Colorado, especially for a primary, having 100 percent statewide name ID gives you such a tremendous advantage.”
Self-Selection. The biggest advantage ex-athletes have besides name recognition is that most of them don’t need a political career. And because they don’t need a political career, they can be choosy and enter races they are likely to win.
The “Coolness” Factor. Even if an ex-athlete isn’t a household name, they still had a cool career that appeals to voters. As Ray and I wrote in “Glitteratti Government,”
“candidates without great name recognition can still benefit from the ‘coolness’ of their former professions. Consider the case of Rick Bosetti. Bosetti had a seven-year professional baseball career but was far from a household name. He had only two full seasons in the big leagues, and when he retired at age 28, he admitted: ‘I’m realistic enough to know I’m in the twilight of a mediocre career.’ When Bosetti subsequently ran for a seat on the Redding, CA City Council, newspaper articles invariable referred to him as ‘former Major League baseball star Rick Bosetti.’ ‘Former Major League baseball star’ certainly sounds a lot cooler than ‘real estate agent and developer,’ which was the profession of Dave Rutledge, one of the candidates Bosetti beat in the race.”
Fundraising. Former athletes tend to hobnob with country club types willing and able to bankroll a campaign. Moreover, they tend to be good draws at fundraising events. After all, if you’re shelling out $1,000 a plate for a rubber chicken campaign dinner and a picture with the candidate, who would you rather see: Steve Largent or Stuart Price? (Don’t know who Stuart Price is? That’s the point.)
The Halo Effect. People mistakenly believe that success in one field translates to others. “You can throw a 25-yard comeback on a rope against tight coverage? You’d be great on the House Appropriations Committee!”
Size. Most athletes are pretty big, and, all things being equal, the bigger candidate usually wins.
3. Athlete-Turned-Politician All-Star Team
An athlete-turned-politician had to win an election to make my All-Star Team. I then weighed their athletic and political accomplishments to create a First-Team, Second-Team, Third-Team, and Honorable Mention.
Every All-Star roster is subject to controversy, and I expect this list to be no different. So, let the debate begin (and if you find some athlete-turned-politician I missed, please email me at tom@22zin.com).
First Team
Bill Bradley. Forward. U.S. Senator, Presidential Candidate.
Jack Kemp. Quarterback. U.S. Representative, Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidate.
Ralph Metcalfe. Sprinter. U.S. Representative, Founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Jim Bunning. Pitcher. U.S. Representative; U.S. Senator.
Bob Mathias. Decathlete. U.S. Representative.
Jim Ryun. Middle-Distance. U.S. Representative.
Steve Largent. Wide Receiver. U.S. Representative, candidate for Oklahoma Governor.
Alan Page. Defensive Tackle. Associate Justice of Minnesota Supreme Court.
SECOND TEAM
Bob St. Clair. Offensive Tackle. City Council, Mayor of Daly City (CA), San Mateo (CA) County Supervisor.
Mo Udall. Forward. U.S. Representative.
J.C. Watts. Quarterback. U.S. Representative.
Judy Martz. Olympic Speed Skater, Governor of Montana.
Ed Vincent. Running Back. Member of the California Assembly and Senate. Mayor of Inglewood (CA).
Dave Albritton. Sprinter. Ohio House of Representatives.
Tom Osborne. Head Coach. U.S. Representative.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Olympic Judo Team. U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator.
Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell. Pitcher. U.S. Representative.
Paul Krause. Defensive Back. Dakota County (MN) Commissioner.
Fred Arbanas. Tight End. Jackson County (MO) Legislator.
Fob James. Running Back. Governor of Alabama.
Hank Lauricella. Quarterback/Running Back. Member of the Louisiana House and Senate.
Kevin Johnson. Point Guard. Mayor of Sacramento.
THIRD TEAM
Tom McMillen. Power Forward. U.S. Representative.
Heath Shuler. Quarterback. U.S. Representative.
Anthony Gonzalez. Wide Receiver. U.S. Representative.
John Baker. Defensive Line. Sherriff.
Napoleon Harris. Linebacker. Illinois State Senate.
Randy Bass. First Base. Oklahoma Senate.
Don Lash. Long Distance. Indiana State House.
Jon Runyan. Offensive Line. U.S. Representative.
Colin Allred. Linebacker. U.S. Representative.
Burgess Owens. Safety. U.S. Representative.
Herman Wedemeyer. Running Back. Honolulu City Council; Hawaii House of Representatives.
Tom Gola. Small Forward. Philadelphia City Controller; Pennsylvania House.
HONORABLE MENTION
Victor Aldridge; Dave Bing; Rick Bosetti; Tommy Byrne; Raymond James Cannon; Terry Dehere; LaVern Dilweg; Dave Edler; Walter Johnson; Mike Kenn; Bill Kenney; Jack Mildren; Ed Rutkowski; Jim Schwantz; Pius Schwert; Brad Sellers; Greg Skrepenak; Robert Thomas; Tommy Tuberville; Reggie Williams; Sam Wyche; and Cale Yarborough.
4. BAD BEATS
Here are the top 10 famous athletes who lost their bids for public office:
Lynn Swann. Wide Reciever. Lost the 2006 race for Governor of Pennsylvania.
Bud Wilkinson. Football Coach. Lost his bid for U.S. Senate from Oklahoma in 2964.
Richard “The King” Petty. Race Car Driver. Lost the 1996 race to be North Carolina’s Secretary of State.
George Mikan. Center. Lost race for U.S. Congress in 1956.
Carl Lewis. Sprinter. He tried to run for N.J. Senate in 2011 but was ruled ineligible because he hadn’t met residency requirements.
Bill Mazeroski. Second Base. Lost his race for County Commissioner of Westmoreland County (PA) in 1987.
Archie Moore. Light Heavyweight. Unsuccessful bid for California Assembly in 1960.
Dan “Big Daddy” Garlits. Drag Racer. Lost bid for Congress in 1994.
Herschel Walker. Running Back. Lost U.S. Senate race in Georgia in 2022.
Peter Boulware. Linebacker. Won the Republican primary for a Florida House seat in 2007 but lost in the general election by 430 votes. Governor Charlie Crist appointed him to the Florida Board of Education in 2008.
Other Political losers
Caitlyn Jenner; Randal Hill; Craig James; Peter Ueberroth; Steve Sax; Clint Didier; Russ Francis; Shawn Bradley; Chris Dudley; Hayes Jones; Phil McConkey; Jay Riemersma; Dwayne Woodruff; Garry Cobb; Jimmy Farris; Edd Hargett; Matthew "The Law" Lindland; Jack Marin; “Baby” Joe Mesi; Jason Buck; Michael Faulkner; Bobby Richardson; and Mao Tosi.
