Bill Foley leads list of local sports political donors

Bill Foley was the first owner to bring a major league sports franchise into Las Vegas. The influential businessman also sits among the the valley’s most active sports figures when it comes to political donations.

The Golden Knights owner has made extensive contributions to conservative causes and candidates across the country in this election cycle, which culminates with Tuesday’s presidential election.

Foley has a preferred candidate.

He made a maximum donation of $2,800 directly to Donald Trump’s campaign on March 2, the same day he gave donations of $35,500 and $102,400 to the Republican National Committee and $250,000 to the Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising endeavor with the RNC.

There also were three hefty donations to three separate conservative political action committees between Aug. 21 and 24.

Foley gave $250,000 to the Georgia Action Fund, $220,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s targeted state victory committee and $256,300 to the Gardner Victory Committee.

A week later, Foley gave $250,000 to the 1820 PAC, a super PAC largely focused on re-electing Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine.

All contribution information was collected from the public Federal Election Commission database.

Foley also made contributions of $10,000 to each of at least 16 state Republican parties over the last several months.

Through the Golden Knights, Foley was not made available for comment.

While he leads the way among local sports figures in political contributions, he’s not alone.

Raiders owner Mark Davis gave $5,000 to the Gridiron PAC in December 2019.

Gridiron PAC, the lobbying arm of the NFL, also received a total of $5,000 from Raiders president Marc Badain in two separate donations in November and December of 2019.

Badain also made a $2,800 contribution to the Joe Biden for President campaign in May 2019.

Raiders offensive lineman Richie Incognito made a series of at least 14 donations between $1,050 and $1,400 to President Trump-related PACs between May and June. In April, he gave $2,800 to Arizona Republican Sen. Martha McSally’s re-election campaign.

UFC president Dana White, who has spoken on behalf of Trump at the last two Republican conventions, does not appear to have donated money to the president’s campaign. He did give $5,000 to ZUFFA PAC, a lobbying arm of the UFC, in December.

White, a longtime advocate for former Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, has often described his politics as more transactional.

He did give $2,000 to Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in December. He also gave $1,000 to Republican congressional candidate Dan Rodimer in May.

Top Rank Boxing CEO Bob Arum has been a vocal critic of President Trump and appears to have put his money behind his words.

Arum made a pair of $2,800 contributions to Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, along with $7,200 to the Democratic National Committee in June. He also gave $2,800 to Biden’s campaign at that time.

Arum added $10,000 to the Biden Victory Fund and capped it off with $5,000 to the state Democratic party on Sept. 14.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.