Giants owner Johnson donated max to pro-QAnon Rep. Boebert Billionaire’s political activity has made him a target in the past
According to FEC filings, in the lead-up to the 2020 general election, San Francisco Giants principal owner Charles B. Johnson and his wife Ann each donated $2,800 — the maximum allowable amount for congressional candidates — to Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., a QAnon sympathizer who tweeted about the location of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol that caused five deaths.
Charles B. Johnson, 88, is a billionaire with decadeslong ties to the Republican Party. His donations have already come under scrutiny in recent years — an ESPN/FiveThirtyEight analysis from October revealed that since 2015, he’s given far more to Republicans (nearly $11 million) than any other owner in pro sports. And in 2018, Johnson donated to Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (then a candidate), who quipped about one of her supporters on the campaign trail: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be in the front row.”
Johnson issued a rare public statement when his donation was revealed, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that HydeSmith’s remark was “stupid,” that he’d gotten his money back, and, “On the whole, I don’t like the idea of politics affecting anything I do with the Giants.”
But Johnson may have wanted to refer back to that sentiment before giving money to a conspiracy theorist who once said on a QAnon-friendly podcast, “Everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real.” Boebert, sworn in on Jan. 3, tweeted, “Today is 1776,” in the early morning hours of Jan. 6, before Trump supporters rioted at the Capitol. She’s faced calls for her resignation or expulsion after she endangered Pelosi and fellow members of the House with her live play-by-play of their whereabouts during the riots. (Other members of Congress have said that they were explicitly told not to do what Boebert did; it’s unclear if she could be held criminally liable for her actions.)
When Congress reconvened, Boebert voted against ratifying the Electoral College results in the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania. She’s since complained about the newly installed metal detectors at the entrance to Congress, which she apparently set off on Wednesday, after previously bragging about carrying a gun around town (there is no evidence so far that she actually brought the gun into the building).
The Johnsons’ $5,600 donations date back to Sept. 23, a few months after Boebert won her primary race. That victory got her on President Donald Trump’s radar.
Johnson’s not the only MLB owner who seems to have taken a liking to Boebert. FEC filings show that on Sept. 12, Arizona Diamondbacks owner Earl “Ken” Kendrick similarly donated $2,800 to her campaign. Almost five years ago, Earl and his wife Randy were lauded for funding an anti-Trump Super PAC. “Ken said, ‘Randy, our obligation is to our own ethics, our integrity, our values. They aren’t to a particular party. We didn’t take a loyalty oath to the party,’” Randy said at the time.
Randy Kendrick also donated $2,800 to Boebert on Sept. 12, according to FEC records.
We reached out to the San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday morning to see if the organizations or team owners wanted to an issue a statement about their donations. We gave them a deadline of end of day Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, we have not received a response from either organization.