LeBron James checked the status of Georgia’s runoff senate races not long after finishing his NBA game against the Grizzlies on Tuesday night.
Republican candidate Kelly Loeffler had just surrendered her lead over Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock; by morning, she trailed him by more than 50,000 votes with 98 percent of ballots reported. James, who often campaigns for liberal causes, used the deficit as a chance to take a shot at Loeffler’s controversial co-ownership of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
“Think I’m gone put together an ownership group for the The Dream,” James wrote on Twitter. “Whose in?”
Loeffler has feuded with Dream players about their social activism and support of the Say Her Name and Black Lives Matter movements, which are crucially important to James and central to the nation’s discussion on social justice. She bristled at the Dream protesting police brutality over the summer following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville.
If Loeffler’s loss to Warnock holds — she has yet to concede despite the AP, CNN, Fox and MSNBC calling the race for her opponent — and Republican David Perdue falls to Democrat Jon Ossoff in Tuesday night’s other Georgia runoff, then Democrats would seize control of the Senate. Ossoff entered Wednesday morning with a slight vote advantage.
James, of course, is a staunch opponent of President Donald Trump and has traded barbs with the one-term leader over social media and through interviews. Loeffler tied her candidacy closely to Trump in an appeal to his base.
She has been pressured by the Women’s National Basketball Players Association to relinquish her position as co-owner of the Dream, and the picture accompanying James’ tweet shows Dream players in “Vote Warnock” shirts. She has yet to give up her financial stake in the franchise.