Vinod Khosla’s early tenure as the new Seattle Seahawks owner has included viral comments about keeping the team in Seattle, questions about Khosla’s fandom of a different NFL franchise and sky-high hopes of repeating as Super Bowl champions.
Add to that list another unique piece of Khosla’s ownership: his Democratic political campaign spending.
The 2026 midterm elections are less than a week away and professional sports team owners in the United States have spent tens of millions of dollars on this year’s election. According to a new report released on Oct. 28 by Front Office Sports, Khosla is one of very few professional sports team owners donating to Democratic causes. Federal Election Commission data shows that Khosla donated around $2 million to a Senate Democratic PAC (known as “SMP”) in the 2025-2026 election cycle.
Khosla’s spending was the second most of all NFL owners for this election cycle (after Rob Walton of the Denver Broncos). Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, was the only other NFL owner on the list.
According to Front Office Sports, “Federal Election Commission records show that outside outside of Khosla and Blank, nearly every NFL dollar spent on Tuesday’s races went towards Republicans, led by the Walton-Penner family who owns the Broncos.”
Where do Seattle sports team owners rank in the list?
The top political campaign spender in the small group of Seattle sports team owners is Khosla, who ranks sixth overall and second on the list of NFL owners. Khosla has spent around $2 million on Democratic campaign causes during this election cycle.
Khosla has not donated solely to Democratic candidates; his most recent donations, totaling $5,000, went to Tennessee Republican Chuck Fleischmann’s campaign for Congress. Outside of those donations, Khosla has donated to Democratic candidates Sherrod Brown in Ohio, LaMonica McIver in New Jersey and Roy Cooper in North Carolina, among other donations.
Co-owners of the Seattle Storm also topped the list for WNBA spenders including donations from Lisa Brummel ($6,500), Dawn Trudeau ($4,850) and Ginny Gilder ($3,850) all to Democratic causes.
What sports team owners donate the most?
Here’s the top ten sports team owners ranked by donation amount:
Miriam Adelson
NBA
Dallas Mavericks
$67.63 million
Rob Walton
NFL
Denver Broncos
$8.96 million
Tony Ressler
NBA
Atlanta Hawks
$2.71 million
Charles B. Johnson
MLB
San Francisco Giants
$2.60 million
Richard “Dick” DeVos
NBA
Orlando Magic
$2.40 million
Vinod Khosla
NFL
Seattle Seahawks
$2.09 million
Jimmy and Dee Haslam
NFL, NBA, MLS, NWSL
Cleveland Browns, Milwaukee Bucks, Columbus Crew, NWSL Columbus
$2.06 million
Dan DeVos
NBA
Orlando Magic
$1.85 million
Jerry Jones, Sr.
NFL
Dallas Cowboys
$1.56 million
Philip Anschutz
NHL, MLS
L.A. Kings, L.A. Galaxy
$1.33 million
See the full list of donation amounts at frontofficesports.com.
Zachary Fletcher is a trending news reporter with USA TODAY Network’s Washington state team. Keep up with him on X (@zdfletch), BlueSky (@zfletcher.bsky.social) or reach him at zfletcher@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Seahawks owner Vinod Khosla is one of few NFL owners donating to Democrats