Should Vinod Khosla close on his family’s $9.6 billion acquisition of the Seattle Seahawks, he would become the most prolific donor to Democratic candidates among all NFL owners.
The tech billionaire has given more than $2.1 million to Democratic candidates and left-focused political action committees so far in the 2026 election cycle, according to updated data from the Federal Election Commission. That’s more than quadruple all of the league’s current control owners combined, according to Sportico’s calculations.
The next largest Democratic donor since January 2025 is Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank at $303,000. Blank also gave $3,500 to Republicans. There are a handful of others who have donated to Democrats in much smaller amounts, none more than $66,000.
Much more money from NFL owners has flowed to Republicans so far in this cycle. Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton is by far the most active donor in the league, having given more than $8.5 million to Republican candidates. Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is next, at about $1.2 million, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at $1.1 million.
The FEC this week updated its political donation database to include the second quarter of 2026. Much of the money has flowed to Senate and House candidates and PACs focused both primaries and general elections.
Blank, for example, donated to New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the bulk of Khosla’s giving was to the left-focused Senate Majority PAC. Jones made a $1 million donation to MAGA Inc., a PAC that supports Donald Trump. Many NFL owners have given to Jay Feely, a former pro kicker now seeking office in Arizona, and many have also given to the Gridiron PAC, which the league distributes to candidates and other action committees affiliated with both parties.
Khosla and his wife Neeru, who will serve as the Seahawks’ main governor, reached their agreement to buy the team last week. Sporticowrote earlier this week about a variety of ways in which their deal breaks new ground for the NFL. For example, it appears Neeru will be the first woman to assume the top ownership position in the NFL immediately following a sale. They will both be rare league owners born outside the U.S.
Khosla’s public comments about politics, religion and social structure also put him in a class of his own among the largely conservative NFL ownership set. While his political activity has been well documented—he’s held fundraiser dinners for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and he endorsed Hillary Clinton—his Wikipedia page was recently edited to remove a sentence that identified him as a Democrat. The user who made that edit has only edited Khosla’s page in the past.
The data and Sportico’s analysis have some important caveats. For some owners, particularly those with more common names, it can be hard to fully parse and assign donations. There are a number of Jo Allen donors in Washington, for example, without any direct knowable link to current Seahawks owner Jody Allen. None of those donations topped $1,000, and they were not assigned to Allen in these calculations.
In general, Sportico stuck to donations that clearly identified the owner. Since Haslam and his father share the same name and are both active political funders, donations tabbed under “James A. Haslam” without a “II” or “III” in the name were not counted. (A $1 million donation in the name of Jerral W. Jones was counted as Jerry Jones and not his son, Jerry Jones Jr.).
Sportico also chose to limit the search to the owners themselves, and not their broader family members. Wives, husbands, partners, parents, siblings and children were generally not counted, except for a few exceptions. Joel, Bryan and Edward Glazer were all included for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; both Steve Tisch and John Mara were both counted for the New York Giants. None of those decisions impacted the topline data by a notable margin.
Political donations typically slow in the years where the presidency is not being contested. A number of NFL owners donated to president Donald Trump’s first inauguration in 2017—including Edward Glazer; former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Kraft Group; Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan; late Houston Texans owner Bob McNair; New York Jets owner Woody Johnson; and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke—but none contributed to his second inauguration committee in 2025.