5 sports figures running for office in 2026 election. Who's funding them?
Jared Beilby and Blake Schuster, USA TODAYTue, November 3, 2026 at 4:57 PM UTC
Five sports personalities are running for a nationally relevant office in Nov. 3’s general election, according to a USA TODAY Sports analysis of U.S. political candidates.
Those five are:
Michele Tafoya: A former broadcaster who worked on the sidelines for NBC’s Sunday Night Football coverage from 2011 to 2022. She’s running as a Republican for a Minnesota U.S. senate seat against Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat currently serving as the state's lieutenant governor.
Mark Teixeira: Played in MLB from 2003 to 2016, most notably for the New York Yankees. He’s running as a Republican for Texas’ 21st congressional district against Democratic candidate Kristin Hook.
Jay Feely: A former NFL kicker for six different teams. He also played at Michigan. He’s running as a Republican for Arizona’s 1st congressional district against Democrat Amish Shah.
Tommy Tuberville: A former college football head coach at Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati. A current U.S. Senator for Alabama, he’s running as a Republican for Alabama’s governor against Doug Jones.
Colin Allred: Played football at Baylor and played 32 regular-season NFL games from 2007 to 2010 with the Tennessee Titans. He’s running as a Democrat for Texas’ 33rd congressional district against Republican Patrick Gillespie. Allred previously represented Texas as a congressman from 2019 to 2025.
These candidates are part of a long tradition of sports figures seeking or holding elected office. Notable former sports personalities turned politicians include Buffalo Bills quarterback Jack Kemp, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Steve Largent and New York Knicks small forward Bill Bradley.
Others are also in state-level or municipal elections this year, such as former NFL punter Chris Kluwe, who’s running for a state Assembly seat in Orange County, Calif., and former NFL tight end Mark Iwanowski, who’s running for a city council seat in San Carlos, Calif.
Which sports figures are favored to win 2026 election?
Out of those five top-level candidates, three are heavy favorites in their races: Allred, Teixeira and Tuberville all have at least a 90% chance of winning, per markets listed by Kalshi, an online prediction market platform, for those races as of Nov. 2. Kalshi lists implied probabilities, which reflect how traders are pricing the likelihood of an outcome, rather than the results of a poll.
Feely and Tafoya are longshots in their respective races. Kalshi market prices implied roughly a 20% chance of Feely winning and an 8% chance for Tafoya.
Texas’ 33rd congressional district, where Allred is running, is strongly blue, having voted 66% for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. It serves the Dallas metro area.
Teixeira’s 21st congressional district in Texas is the opposite, having voted 60% for Donald Trump in 2024. The district is located primarily north of San Antonio and southwest of Austin.
For Alabama, the state has elected a Republican as governor in every election since 2002. Should Tuberville win Nov. 3, he’d be the fourth consecutive Republican to serve as Alabama governor.
Arizona’s 1st congressional district, where Feely is running, narrowly went to Trump in the last election, 51% to 48%, but Democrat Ruben Gallego won the 2024 senate vote 52% to 47%. The incumbent representative is Republican David Schweikert, who did not seek reelection for his Senate seat in a bid to win the state’s gubernatorial election, but lost in the primaries.
For Tafoya in Minnesota, the state has elected Democratic senators in every election since 2006. Harris won the state over Trump by 4.2 points in 2024. Minnesota has gone to a Democrat in every presidential election since Richard Nixon beat George McGovern in 1972.
Who's funding the sports figures running for office in 2026?
Each of the five campaigns took different funding routes.
Tafoya raised $12.5 million through Oct. 14, the most of any federal candidate on this list.
Notable donors to her campaign include: Michael Bidwill, Arizona Cardinals owner; Craig Leipold, Minnesota Wild owner; Glen Taylor, former Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx owner; Terry McAulay, NBC's NFL rules analyst; and John Stockton, NBA Hall of Famer with the Utah Jazz.
Allred reported $8.1 million in campaign receipts through Oct. 14, the second-highest total among the four federal candidates.
More than half of that came through transfers from the Allred For Texas committee associated with his previous Senate bid. Among named donor records to his House campaign, roughly 58% were associated with addresses outside Texas, while California accounted for nearly 12% of itemized individual contributions.
The NFL's political action committee, GridIron PAC, gave his House campaign $2,500.
Feely’s donor list, meanwhile, has been dotted with sports-adjacent names, as previously reported by USA TODAY.
USA TODAY Sports evaluated poltiical contributions through Oct. 14, then used ChatGPTto examine 818 distinct donor name-and-location records from Feely's campaign, identifying 72 people with potential ties to professional or college sports. Two reporters then independently verified their identities and connections to sports.
That includes Tafoya donor Bidwill, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz and NBA great Charles Barkley. The Bidwill family donated $20,000 in total.
Notably, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank also donated $3,500 to Feely’s Republican campaign, although Blank generally leans Democrat with his donations.
Teixeira took a different route still to his $4.4 million funding total.
Unlike the other sports figure candidates, the bulk of his funding – 63% – came from personal loans, per FEC filing statements. Candidates are allowed to fund their campaigns through personal loans the campaign can later repay, including with money from donors.
As of Oct. 14, Teixeira's campaign still owed him the full $2.75 million, per FEC filing statements.
The Teixeira campaign did not respond to USA TODAY Sports’ request for comment.
Teixeira also received a $5,000 gift from MLB’s political action committee in June, just a couple of weeks before he criticized the league. He called MLB's handling of a dispute involving San Francisco Giants players who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps a "PR disaster," arguing that religious expression from Christians was being silenced.
MLB did not respond to USA TODAY Sports’ request for comment.
In Alabama, Tuberville’s campaign raised more funds than any of the federal candidates with $16.5 million cash contributions through Oct. 22.
Those donations were nearly split in contributions by individuals and businesses, according to a USA TODAY Sports analysis of campaign funding data from the Alabama Secretary of State.
That differs from his Democrat opponent, Doug Jones, a previous U.S. senator, whose funding is 98% from individuals.
Recently, a pro-Tuberville PAC in Alabama held a fundraising dinner headlined by football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who previously told Mississippi Today in September that he doesn’t “really get into politics.”
Those comments followed an appearance by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on ESPN’s College Gameday where Herbstreit has been a co-host since 1996. Cruz was booed by the live show’s audience throughout his segment while promoting the Protect College Sports Act.
Tuberville has served one term as Alabama senator, winning 60% of the vote in the 2020 general election.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 5 sports figures running for office in 2026 election. Who's funding them?
Source: Sports
