(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)Nike instantly became a favorite company of those in the “resistance” after unveiling former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick as the poster boy for their 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. However, Democrats supporting Nike were just rocked by a nasty surprise right before the November midterms.
Two years after mediocre former-49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first knelt during the anthem, he became the new star of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign.
For the political left, adding a cop-hating, America-loathing, dictator-loving, social justice warrior is the perfect selling point, and liberals rushed out to stock up on Nike gear following the company’s announcement.
Despite the backlash in the wake of Nike’s endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick, the sportswear company has seen a 31% increase in online sales, according to one outside estimate.
Nike sales grew 31% from Sunday through Tuesday over the Labor Day holiday this year compared with the previous year, according to Edison Trends. [Source: TIME]
However, the liberals who were so quick to buy Nike products were just hit with a nasty surprise. As it turns out, Nike donates three times more to the GOP than to the Democrats:
Nike has been making headlines recently for its controversial advertisement with Colin Kaepernick which many perceive to be promoting a socially conscious message with progressive values. When it comes to political spending, however, Nike and its employees have spent more than three times as much supporting Republicans compared to Democrats in this election cycle.
Musa Okwonga, a Berlin-based artist who has written extensively on soccer, told the Washington Post that he saw Nike’s ad with Kaepernick as “the brand claiming to be “progressive” and willing “to change the status quo.”
Although Nike appears to send a specific socially conscious message in the cultural realm, in the political world Nike employees and its PAC contributed $424,000 to the Republican Party and its candidates in the 2018 election cycle, compared to only $122,000 to the Democrats — the party typically associated with progressive values today. [Source: OpenSecrets]
Nike gave a whopping 78 percent of political contributions to Republicans this election cycle. And with a few notable exceptions like the 2008 and 2016 election cycles, Nike has a track record of giving much more to Republicans than Democrats in the past decade.
During the 2010, 2012, and 2014 election cycles, Nike gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans, with 76 percent, 69 percent, and 59 percent of their contributions going to the GOP in each of those cycles, respectively. Nearly half of Nike’s political spending has come from individual contributions made by co-founder Phil Knight and his wife Penny.
It would seem that most of the money liberals have dropped on Nike since the company released its Kaepernick ad has gone to fund GOP candidates, not Democrats. This surely will not sit well with those on the left who purchase Nike gear assuming that the company has taken a stand for the progressive agenda.
Are you surprised to learn that Nike donates far more money to the GOP than to Democrats? Don’t forget to share this information with your friends. It might change how they feel about Nike.
