Orlando Magic gave $50,000 to Super PAC backing DeSantis

ORLANDO, Fla. — One name stands out among the list of millionaire and billionaire contributors to the Super PAC backing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign: the Orlando Magic basketball team.

Orlando Magic Ltd. is listed as giving $50,000 to Never Back Down, the political committee now essentially operating as DeSantis’ campaign in many states, according to its first FEC filing.

The Magic are owned by Dan DeVos, whose family are longtime Republican donors and have given millions to the party and GOP candidates over the years.

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former Democratic state House member from Orlando and current state Senate candidate, slammed the team for contributing to DeSantis’ campaign despite holding a Pride Night event in March.

The event, which the Magic website states was “to celebrate diversity, equity, inclusion, and unity with the LGBTQ+ community,” featured a Pride Night T-shirt created by Orlando artist Adam McCabe, a halftime performance by Orlando Gay Chorus and a ceremony honoring Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, the chair of the LGBTQ group OneOrlando Alliance and the director of Hope CommUnity Center in Orlando.

McCabe and Sousa-Lazaballet could not be reached for comment.

DeSantis has drawn the ire of the LGBTQ community for the controversial “don’t say gay” law banning instruction sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and since expanded by the state Board of Education to 12th grade.

DeSantis has also signed laws banning gender-affirming treatments for minors and cracking down on drag shows. Someone in his campaign reportedly also created a video bashing former President Donald Trump for saying he’d protect LGBTQ people following the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016 that killed 49. The video was derided as homophobic by the conservative LGBTQ group Log Cabin Republicans.

The team raised a “49” banner in 2016 in honor of Pulse victims.

“The Orlando Magic need to pick a side,” Smith said. “… Because it doesn’t square with me that you can have a Pride Night and claim to celebrate and support the LGBTQ community, and then donate $50,000 to a presidential candidate who is running against the LGBTQ community and promoting a platform to take away our rights. These two things cannot exist at the same time.”

NBA owners have made individual contributions, including Knicks owner James Dolan’s many contributions to Republicans and Democrats in New York and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban contributing to Democrat Zoe Lofgren’s campaign in 2002.

But none of the DeVos family members are listed as having contributed to Never Back Down, just the team itself.

Magic spokesman Joel Glass said while the contribution was listed as being on June 26, the check was dated and delivered on May 19, a week before DeSantis announced his bid for the presidency.

“To clarify, this gift was given before Gov. DeSantis entered the presidential race,” Glass said. “It was given as a Florida business in support of a Florida governor for the continued prosperity of Central Florida.”

Never Back Down, though, was specifically formed in March by former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli to “urge Ron DeSantis to run for president.” The group ran an ad in April bashing Trump for his criticism of DeSantis.

The Magic organization has made federal political contributions in the past, including $2,000 to a young conservative group in 2014, $500 to a group called Conservative Results in 2016 and $500 to Democratic Orange County Mayor Linda Chapin’s congressional campaign in 2000, according to FEC filings.

SFGate editor Alex Shultz reported that the latest check to Never Back Down could be considered the largest-ever political contribution attributed to any NBA team, with only a few $15,000 donations by the Phoenix Suns to the Republican Party in the late 1990s as a comparison.

“There’s probably a joke in here about the Magic investing in yet another overhyped prospect,” Shultz wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, referring to DeSantis’ low poll numbers in the GOP primary.