David Crowley, Milwaukee County executive, was always going to celebrate a Milwaukee Brewers World Series win.
But the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race may have another reason to celebrate the Brewers’ first World Series title: Academic research shows that incumbents, or the party in power, do better in elections when the local sports team is winning.
A 2010 study by Neil Malhotra at the Stanford Graduate School of Business found that when major college teams won games two weeks before an election, incumbents’ vote share in the county jumped by as much as 1.61 percent in gubernatorial, presidential and U.S. Senate elections. The study found that winning a championship so close to the election had an even stronger effect, boosting support by 2.3 to 2.42 percentage points more than when the team was losing.
Crowley is not an incumbent — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is not running for a third term — but he is an extension of the party in power and Evers is arguably the most powerful figure behind the Crowley campaign. Crowley will face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany on Tuesday, with polls showing the Democrat with a slight advantage.
“When people’s teams win, they become happier and more satisfied with the status quo, and that mood carries into the polling booth,” Malhotra said of the study.
Crowley also played a central role in a 2023 dispute over the team’s future in Milwaukee, helping strike a deal to keep the team in its ballpark through 2050.
“This was a great investment,” he told WISN during the celebrations in Milwaukee after the victory. He added, “It’s an investment in the culture of who we are.”
The post Why the Brewers’ win may help Wisconsin’s Democratic nominee for governor appeared first on Washington Post.
