AP Exclusive: MLB Suspends Political Donations After DC Riot

NEW YORK (AP) – Major League Baseball is suspending all political contributions following the invasion of the United States Capitol last week by a crowd loyal to President Donald Trump, joining a wave of big business rethinking their efforts to put pressure on Washington.

“In light of the unprecedented events of the past week on the United States Capitol, MLB is suspending contributions from its Political Action Committee pending a review of our political contribution policy going forward.” the league said in a statement to the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The National Football League has said it will reconsider its donations but made no commitment to withhold them.

“We are reassessing our political donation policies through the Gridiron PAC,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the AP on Wednesday in a statement.

Following the insurgency last week by Trump supporters as Congress tried to certify the presidential election results, many companies said they would avoid donating to members of the House and Senate who voted to undo President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. Others, like the MLB, have completely deferred political donations to both political parties.

MLB was the first of the major professional sports leagues to announce that it would stop lobbying through its PAC in the wake of the deadly Riots on Capitol Hill.

The Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball’s Political Action Committee has donated $ 669,375 to Senate and House candidates since the 2016 election cycle, with 52.4% of that money going to candidates republicans, according to The Center for Responsive Policy.

Among his lobbying successes was a bill in 2018 that exempted baseball from minor leagues players earn just $ 5,500 a season thanks to federal minimum wage laws, beating a three-player lawsuit filed four years earlier. The “Save America’s Passtime Act” appeared on page 1,967 of a $ 1.3 trillion spending bill.

Since the 2016 election cycle, the MLB has made contributions to two senators and nine representatives who were among those opposed to certifying Biden’s victory.

Senate Republicans are Ted Cruz (Texas) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi), and House Republicans are Roger Williams (Texas), Kevin McCarthy (California), David Schweikert (Arizona), Steve Chabot (Ohio), Markwayne Mullin (Oklahoma), Adrian Smith (Nebraska), Michael Burgess (Texas), Rick Crawford (Arkansas) and Elise Stefanik (New York).

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AP Pro Football writer Barry Wilner contributed to this report.

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