One parallel between sports and politics is that games and elections come down to the same binary: Outside of very specific instances, including many soccer matches, you either win or lose.
So, on Tuesday night, those were the familiar stakes for a handful of candidates with a background in sports, from a former MLB All Star to a longtime sideline reporter. Here’s how they all fared in the midterm elections, which resulted in the Democrats flipping control of the Senate and House in a massive blue wave:
In House races …
- Republican Mark Teixeira (former MLB All Star) won Texas’s 21st Congressional District, defeating Democrat Kristin Hook.
- Republican Jay Feely (former NFL kicker) is heading toward a loss to Democrat Amish Shah in Arizona’s 1st District. Most of the vote was in as of Wednesday morning, putting Shah on the verge of flipping the seat for Democrats. (Shah was the New York Jets’ team doctor at the same time Feely was the team’s kicker. In a twist, then, a Jet was always guaranteed to win.)
- Democrat Colin Allred (former NFL linebacker) won Texas’s 33rd Congressional District, defeating Republican Patrick David Gillespie.
In Senate races …
- Republican Michele Tafoya (longtime sideline reporter, including on “Sunday Night Football” for more than a decade) lost to Democrat Peggy Flanagan for Minnesota’s open Senate seat.
- Democrat Josh Turek (D-Iowa, two-time Paralympic gold medalist in wheelchair basketball) defeated Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson for Iowa’s open Senate seat.
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In gubernatorial races …
- Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville (former Division I football coach, most notably at Auburn) defeated Democrat Doug Jones to become Alabama’s next governor.
There are different levels to these sports backgrounds, in that Teixeira is much more known for his baseball career than Allred is for his football days. And if you dig deep enough, many more of the midterm candidates had some connection to sports, tenuous or otherwise. Before losing his Senate seat in Ohio to Democrat Sherrod Brown on Tuesday, Republican Jon Husted (R-Ohio) played college football at Dayton. Before losing to Amy Acton in Ohio’s gubernatorial race, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy took a few curious hacks in a batting cage.
But as for sports-driven name recognition, the four Republicans above — Teixeira, Tuberville, Tafoya and Feely — are in a different category than the Democrats. It’s another example of how Republicans don’t just mine sports for political talking points, but also for candidates with built-in fame.
Tafoya won’t get to see how that could have helped her in office. Neither will Feely unless something dramatically changes Wednesday. Teixeira, on the other hand, has already been angling to join the House’s powerful Financial Services Committee as a freshman, as The Washington Sun reported in October. His connections in New York, where he won a World Series with the Yankees in 2009, should help his chances, even as Republicans lose committee seats.
Asked whether Democrats might use this strategy more in future elections, multiple strategists said it could make sense in long-shot swing districts that have typically favored Republicans (and if the right candidate existed). For example, in 2025, a polling firm tested former Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright against Republican Ann Wagner in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District. Wainwright quickly said he wasn’t interested. On Tuesday, Wagner instead lost her seat to Fred Wellman, an Army veteran.
“For every Mark Teixeira for the Republicans, there’s a cautionary tale like Herschel Walker in Georgia, right?” a Democratic strategist told The Sun Tuesday night, as Democrats were running up the score across the country. “It’s circumstantial, like anything, but it obviously can help to run someone who’s already known for something other than politics. You just want it to feel natural, not forced. That’s a really fine line.”
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