Watching Florida Panther forward Matthew Tkachuk gush over U.S. president Donald Trump at the White House while donning the Commander-in-Chief’s signature red tie may have been a hint, but a new report gleaned from publicly available voter registration data finds that the NHL’s American players are among the most right-leaning in professional sports.
Only one league, Major League Baseball, had a higher percentage of American players who were registered as Republican at 53.7 per cent compared to just 7.8 per cent Democratic and 36.4 Independent.
The NHL came second at 43.9 per cent Republican, 5.6 per cent Democratic, and 48.6 per cent Independent.
VoteHub, the company that compiled the data, called their report the “first systematic, league-by-league examination of political partisanship among professional athletes in the United States.”
“Using voter file data from 23 states and the District of Columbia, we’re able to venture into new territory and collect the party identification on 1,506 athletes across the “Big Four” of North American professional sports leagues, plus the WNBA,” it wrote.
On the other end of the spectrum was the WNBA with just 2.3 per cent of players registered as Republican compared to a commanding 67.5 per cent Democratic and 30.2 per cent Independent.
Info: votehub.com
The NBA leans left, with 42.9 per cent Democratic, 10 per cent Republican, and 45.9 per cent Independent.
The NFL also leaned left, but had the most parity, with 34.3 per cent Democratic, 20.2 per cent Republican and 44.3 per cent Independent.
When it comes to the NHL, the report’s authors point out that the findings are not necessarily indicative of a league-wide trend, as “American players account for only about 30 per cent of the league.”
That fact means the findings among American players “should not be extrapolated to the league’s sizable international player population,” it adds.
When it comes to the large percentage in the Independent category, the report concludes it “could indicate that political engagement is lower,” among athletes, “or that athletes are hiding their true affiliations with the awareness that they are public figures.”