But this time, I thought the results of this survey would interest at least a few of you, especially our U.S. readers as it is — apologies to the rest of our readers — U.S. focused.
Researchers at National Media, INC. — a Republican outfit (*see note at bottom) — surveyed 218,000 Americans to determine which sports had what politically-leaning fans as well as how likely those people were to vote. The details can be found at the Hotline, a long-standing “daily digest” of political news focused mostly on Washington, D.C.
Its bottom-line: Sports fans are “largely Republican.” For our purposes, first and foremost: Formula 1 doesn’t even rate a mention. Apparently we — Republicans or Democrats, Independents or otherwise — aren’t even as big a population in America as pro bull racing, the WNBA or minor league baseball. Or the researchers just didn’t even think to include it.
So, ouch.
But on to the most closely related sports. I’m going to sort them by size, although the article sorts them by political affiliation and likely voter turnout. (A breakout graphic is here.)
Up front? NASCAR. You had to ask? It’s the biggest of the motorsport fan bases and is among the most “Republican-leaning” groups, as well. Plus, it includes likely voters.
Next, again by size of audience, is NHRA drag racing. It also is a fairly Republican sport, but fans aren’t that likely to vote and aren’t that interested in politics.
After drag racing, I kid you not, come monster truck fans. They are more Democrat leaning but not very likely to vote.
Just a little smaller than the drag racing audience is the motocross one. And, apparently, if you like two wheels you also like your Republicans. Its fans are quite a bit more Republican-leaning than the monster truck crowd, although the turnout rate is about the same for both.
Finally, we have Grand-Am racing fans. They are a tad less Democrat than monster truck fans, but a good bit more likely to vote.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the political make-up of U.S. motorsports fans, minus those of us who follow F1.
Anyone willing to take a guess where F1 fans would fall?
Lastly, here’s one finding from the Hotline that I found interesting, especially given the start times for most F1 races in America:
The data is fun to peruse, but it has practical implications as well. Ad buyers should focus on sports programming, according to the analysis. That’s because sports fans are most likely to view events live instead of on a DVR machine, meaning they don’t skip the ads.
So what does this all mean? It means that, unfortunately for Negative Camber, when he runs for president, he’ll have to embrace NASCAR nation if he wants to reach likely voters among the motorsport world. And buying a few ads during some PGA tournaments and college basketball games wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.
* I’m not sure I have to or completely can explain our political parties in any satisfying way to readers who aren’t familiar with the U.S. political environment. This will be 100% my take, trying to be as impartial as possible. Let’s see. President Obama is a Democrat. Former President George W. Bush was a Republican. Democrats tend to be more socially liberal and support government programs that provide aid and assistance as well as oversight of programs/businesses. Republicans are more socially conservative and generally advocate for limited government that addresses core issues such as national defense, infrastructure and public safety. From there, of course, it all gets really complicated and there are exceptions and contradictions at every step. I really don’t want this to shoot off into partisan bickering, so I hope everyone is more or less comfortable with this description.
Also, I’ll let Grace enlighten us about the strengths or weaknesses of this particular survey.
