Democrats, with ‘Coach Walz’ as VP pick, embrace political power of football

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Wearing a navy blue Harris-Walz jacket and a camo baseball cap, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sat in a private suite in Michigan Stadium on Saturday, cheering on a football game with 110,339 other fans and giving the campaign a high visibility perch on a busy September weekend.

Eight hours later and more than 750 miles away in Tuscaloosa, Ala., GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump settled into his own seat in Bryant-Denny Stadium for the much-anticipated showdown between No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama. Alabama is reliably red territory on the political map, but the appearance provided Trump an opportunity to nudge his way into the night’s biggest spotlight and partake in one of the country’s most popular fall rituals.

The presidential campaign season overlaps with the football season, but rarely have the two been so closely intertwined, as both campaigns have used the country’s most popular sport to reach voters and shape their candidates’ image.

Perhaps Walz’s appearance Saturday at a college game — conveniently located in a swing state and featuring the flagship university of his own home state — should not come as a surprise.

But over the past decade, many in Walz’s party have been critical of football amid mounting concerns about concussions, student-athlete pay and the future of the game. In 2014, President Barack Obama memorably said that if he had a son, he would steer him away from the sport, and right-wing commentators accused their left-leaning counterparts of waging a “war on football.”

This year, Walz — a former high school football coach and educator — has struck a different tone, telling crowds at rallies and fundraisers that although Vice President Kamala Harris “took back” freedom, the American flag and family values from Republicans, he was the one to take back football.

“I will admit to this: It was me who took the football back,” he said at one recent fundraiser in McLean, Va.

Though Trump has dinged Walz for being an assistant — not the head coach — at Mankato West High School in Minnesota, Democrats have treated Walz’s football credentials as a key part of his bio, and Harris and other Democrats routinely refer to him as “Coach” at rallies.

Deploying the pigskin playbook makes political sense. Around two-thirds of Democrats and nearly three-quarters of Republicans and independents are football fans, according to a 2023 Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. Politicians have varying levels of comfort shedding their suits and ties on fall weekends, but attending football games offers an opportunity for candidates to reach large numbers of voters while projecting relatability.

Professional football is an all-but unstoppable cultural force in America: 93 of the top 100 television broadcasts last year were National Football League games, according to Nielsen. And college football, which attracts smaller audiences than the NFL but still draws millions of fans each week, is expected to grow: ESPN recently agreed to pay $1.3 billion per year to broadcast college football’s expanded 12-team playoff.

“Football is the most popular sport in America, and by showing that they love and care about the sport, candidates can try to make a personal connection with ordinary voters and to show them that they are just like them,” said Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University. “Making these kinds of personal connections is incredibly powerful on the campaign trail.”

Walz and his family were planning to attend the Michigan-Minnesota matchup even before he was selected as Harris’s running mate, according to a person familiar with his schedule who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail it. His appearance had obvious political value, however: It earned him valuable — and free — media coverage, and allowed him to introduce himself to voters outside of the context of a political ad.

Democrats have used football games as an opportunity to reach voters in other ways, too. The Harris-Walz campaign and its allies have advertised heavily during game broadcasts and flown banners pulled by small airplanes over college stadiums located in key swing states: “JD Vance ‘hearts’ Ohio State + Project 2025” in Ann Arbor earlier this month, referring to the Heritage Foundation-led policy platform — written by Trump allies but publicly disavowed by Trump — that Democrats have sought to saddle the Republican with; “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025,” in Wisconsin; and “Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025” in Pennsylvania. Walz himself has characterized Project 2025 as a far-right “playbook,” and told voters that as a coach, he knows that “if you take the time to make a playbook, you’re going to use it.”

On Saturday, at a pair of college games in North Carolina, the party paid for electronic billboards to parade through pregame tailgate parties, highlighting Trump’s relationship with Mark Robinson and past laudatory comments he’s showered on the state’s embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate.

“Democrats are leaving it all on the field in the race to November, and that means reaching voters through nontraditional methods,” Abhi Rahman, the Democratic National Committee’s deputy communications director, said in a statement. “ … We’re bringing this message right to America’s backyard, whether it’s a billboard on their way to work or a plane flying over a college-football game.”

In the weeks ahead, the Harris-Walz campaign plans to ramp up its presence in the sports world with TV buys during some of the year’s biggest college games featuring teams from battleground states.

On Saturday, it launched Athletes for Harris, an effort to mobilize coaches and athletes, noting in the announcement that “athletes are among the most trusted voices for key voting blocs, especially young men” and that “sporting events and games are also key moments that draw in large and politically diverse audiences, audiences that are increasing their reach with Gen Z and younger men.” The group includes 15 Pro Football Hall of Famers — Emmitt Smith, Drew Pearson and Calvin Johnson among them — who endorsed Harris-Walz.

Even in states and communities with sharp political divisions, football can be a great unifier, like it is for Dawn Nettlow, 57, and Betsy Andreu, 57, former college roommates at the University of Michigan who now live in Dearborn, Mich., and attended the game together on Saturday.

Nettlow is backing Harris, Andreu is not.

“I hope what happens at the game today will happen on November 5 to Tim Walz,” said Andreu, clad in Michigan gear, correctly predicting a Minnesota loss.

Nettlow, however, said she was excited to learn Walz was at the game — and that she was unaware he was a former high school coach himself.

Football has often been a domain occupied by Republican candidates, and college football especially is popular in red-leaning states throughout the Deep South and rural Midwest. So it’s no wonder that Republicans at the top of presidential tickets have aligned themselves closely with the game. Ronald Reagan played in college and portrayed “the Gipper” — Knute Rockne, the legendary Notre Dame coach — on the silver screen. Gerald Ford played college ball for Michigan, Richard M. Nixon reportedly drew up plays for the Washington NFL team and Jack Kemp played quarterback in the NFL.

Although Al Gore and President Joe Biden both played football in high school (and Biden continued his freshman year at the University of Delaware), the Democrats have typically run candidates more closely associated with other sports. John F. Kerry was a cyclist, among other athletic pursuits, President Barack Obama played basketball, Bill Clinton golfed, and Michael Dukakis and Jimmy Carter were both runners.

Trump’s own history with the sport is also complicated. Although he famously owned a USFL team in the 1980s, he has been blamed by some for the downfall of that league and failed in his efforts to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills a decade ago. But as a politician, he knew football was political red meat. He first attended an Alabama game in Tuscaloosa in 2019, went to the 2020 national championship game in New Orleans and also made four visits to the annual Army-Navy game. Last November, as he was battling Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, for the Republican nomination, Trump attended the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry game in Columbia, S.C.

Trump has used football to ignite his base, and the sport became a flash point in the culture wars during the 2016 presidential race. Trump and Republican leaders called out NFL players, such as Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the national anthem, protesting police violence and racial inequity. He has repeatedly challenged NFL brass and team owners, saying professional football “has become soft” and “boring as hell,” and has been critical of rules designed to make the game safer, recently calling the NFL’s new kickoff rule the “BEGINNING OF THE END,” in a Truth Social post.

The NFL plays its games in the country’s largest cities, which are reliably Democrat strongholds. The college game, on the other hand, can put candidates in front of a broad-cross section of Americans.

Trump could reasonably expect a friendly crowd in Tuscaloosa on Saturday — he won the state by more than 25 points in 2020 — but Democrats still hoped to elbow their way into the spotlight.

The Harris campaign unveiled a new TV ad ahead of Trump’s appearance at the game highlighting his unwillingness to commit to a second presidential debate. “Winners never back down from a challenge,” the narrator says. “Champions know it’s anytime, anyplace. But losers, they whine and waffle and take their ball home.”

The football day had begun very early in Tuscaloosa Saturday, with ESPN’s college football staple “GameDay” show on hand for a program beginning at 8 a.m. Central time, during which one sign featured a photo of Trump and predicted of Alabama, “They’re Eating The Dawgs,” a reference to Georgia’s nickname and a Trump fabrication during the presidential debate of Sept. 10. Some fans wore stickers with the same slogan.

The masses of tailgates included one from Alabama’s College Democrats, who had released a statement titled, “Donald Trump is not Welcome Here,” which expressed “our vocal distaste” for “his dangerous rhetoric and promises, and his decision to try to turn this pivotal matchup into a glorified political rally.”

Trump has at times wanted to attend fraternity tailgates or outdoor events before football games, but his team has usually scuttled that idea.

Trump’s aides are worried about security risks, especially if he walks through public parts of the stadium, as he occasionally has in the past and did again on Saturday, tossing out boxes of chicken tenders to fans. The recent attempts on Trump’s life have only heightened those concerns.

At the game, the Secret Service boosted its protection around Trump to levels that one aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss security arrangements, said they had never seen before.

By the time the former president appeared on the giant video screens at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday evening, Alabama had surged to a brisk and breathtaking 28-0 early lead over Georgia, sending the home fans into a joyous frenzy.

The bedlam continued when Trump, introduced on the public address as “the 45th president of the United States,” received strong, steady cheers as he waved from behind a window inside a suite. Chants followed: “USA! USA!”

Trump has enjoyed going to football games at SEC stadiums where the crowds love him, but he usually leaves long before the game is over. During his presidency, for example, he left the national championship in Atlanta during the beginning of the third quarter. He follows the NFL more closely than college football, a person who has talked sports with him said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail a private conversation.

Trump “isn’t exactly campaigning at a football game for undecided voters,” one Trump adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak on the record, told The Washington Post. Trump tries to visit the stadiums where he thinks there will be the largest crowds of people who support him. “It’s more about the crowd.”

If Trump occasionally finds the college game less than compelling, he’s not alone.

Before wandering in to the Michigan-Minnesota game Saturday, Walz stopped by a rainy tailgate, where supporters sought shelter — and selfies — under a branded Harris-Walz tent.

He grinned as he said yes to every selfie request, then paused to ask two children how they thought the game would go before answering his own question.

“Michigan’s pretty solid,” Walz told the children. “ … This is real. We got to win in the Big Ten.”

The kids stared blankly back at the governor. Even at a Big Ten tailgate, not everyone’s a fan.

Culpepper reported from Tuscaloosa. Wells reported from Ann Arbor.