Charles Johnson makes far more political donations than other owners

We’ve known for a while that San Francisco Giants majority owner Charles Johnson has an ugly history of political contributions. Just a few years ago, it was reported that Johnson had donated to a super PAC that was running wildly racist ads.

On Wednesday, less than a week ahead of the presidential election, ESPN and FiveThirtyEight released a report detailing the political contributions of American sports owners. The article notes that no such report can be entirely comprehensive, but they did manage to uncover the contributions of 160 owners and commissioners covering 125 teams.

And with that said ... oh dear, Charles Johnson. My goodness.

Of the 160 people on the list, Johnson leads them all in political donations during the 2016-2020 election cycle, and I probably don’t need to tell you which direction those contributions are sent in.

But Johnson — who contributed about $11 million during that time — isn’t just leading the field. He’s lapping it a few times over.

The Giants owner’s contribution is more than the next six highest contributions combined. Those six are Orlando Magic owner Dan DeVos ($2,280,400 to Republican campaigns), Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos ($2,082,772 to Democratic campaigns), Los Angeles Kings owner Philip F. Anschutz ($1,776,700 to Republican campaigns), Chicago Cubs owner Laura Ricketts ($1,715,425 to Democratic campaigns), Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Susan Haslam ($1,596,900 to Republican campaigns), and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert ($1,479,700 to Republican campaigns).

Those six add up to $10,931,897. Johnson’s contributions during the same period were $10,995,500, to Republican campaigns.

Make of that what you will.