(Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
By Sam Britt
The MLB is suspending all political contributions in the aftermath of the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a group of pro-Trump extremists, according to the Associated Press.
The MLB is the first major professional sports league to announce that it would alter its lobbying strategy in the wake of the deadly riots.
“In light of the unprecedented events last week at the U.S. 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.
Over the past six election cycles, the Major League Baseball Commissioners Office Political Action Committee (PAC) on average raises around $515,547 per election cycle, according to numbers from Open Secrets.
The donors for the PAC are made up of the MLB owners, usually without 100% participation, according to Baseball.fyi.
The money is spent about evenly between the Republican and Democrat parties. Since 2016, 52% of the money has gone to Republican candidates.
Bleacher Report’s Blake Schuster said the PAC had lobbied on issues such as human trafficking and sports betting legislation.
The PAC also used its political influence to lobby for the Save America’s Pastime Act that granted an exemption for minor league baseball players from a class of workers that are entitled to a certain minimum wage and overtime pay, according to Lexology.
Schuster believes that this announcement will not stop MLB owners from continuing their personal contributions.