Washington Sports Teams Promote Voting Effort Ahead Of November Election
Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the owner of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics and Capital City Go-Go, is launching a campaign to encourage people to vote in November’s election.
The teams say they will partner with When We All Vote, a non-partisan voting advocacy group founded in 2018 by Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and others to run a voter registration drive and promote voting and increase turnout through direct appeals from athletes and in-game announcements. Monumental Sports also says it will offer staff a paid day off on Election Day; give employees time to get trained to serve as election workers in D.C., Maryland and Virginia; and even offer up the Capital One Arena as a possible voting site should the city request it.
The new campaign comes as players on the teams have become more politically active in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. In early June, the Wizards and the Mystics released a joint statement expressing the teams’ opposition to “injustice, prejudice, discrimination, police brutality and racism.” A few weeks later, dozens of players from both teams — led in part by Natasha Cloud and Bradley Beal — took part in a protest outside the Capital One Arena to commemorate the celebration of Juneteenth.
Ian Mahinmi, the Wizards’ 33-year-old center, has said that Floyd’s killing prompted him to become more engaged, and he has recently taken up the cause of urging his fans to vote — even though he himself can’t vote in the U.S., having been born in France.
https://wamu.org/story/20/07/22/dc-wizards-capitals-mystics-november-election-vote-washington-2020/
