It seems a new political campaign strategy pops up nearly every election.
It happened again with documents recently obtained by Fox News that show a Montana group offered to pay University of Montana athletes anywhere from $400 to $2,400 to appear in videos containing positive messaging about incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.
The political activist group Montana Together used the Opendorse platform, a leading marketplace for athletes to be connected with brands for endorsement opportunities to solicit athletes into making paid social media posts supporting Tester.
Since 2021, the NCAA has made it legal for college athletes to profit from their “name, image and likeness” (NIL), which originally stemmed from a lawsuit filed in the late 2000s by an athlete who argued he should be paid if featured in video games.
The Tester campaign told multiple media sources that it was not aware of the plan to pay for college athletes’ endorsements nor was contacted by Montana Together.
The solicitation raises numerous ethical questions, but is fully legal.
UW Perspective
There does not appear to be any signs that this kind of activity will happen in Wyoming anytime soon.
Matt Whisenant, deputy director of athletics at the University of Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily he has not seen anything comparable to this activity at UW. Whisenant said his department would not tell student-athletes which candidates to support or not support in the event they were solicited for political NIL endorsements.
“However, should they wish to go down this road, we would strongly encourage them to be thoroughly aware of/educated on all the issues including the pros/cons of publicly supporting a candidate/s (i.e., make a truly informed decision),” Whisenant wrote in an email.
State Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, who is also the football coach at Natrona County High School, said he’s never heard of anything similar in Wyoming and doesn’t believe it will happen anytime soon.
“I just don’t see something like that happening,” he said.
He also doesn’t believe NIL was intended to buy political influence and expects Congress to more heavily restrict NIL in the future.
Harshman noted how significantly NIL has changed the college athletics landscape in just a few short years. College sports have also become more intensive, with many teams requiring near year-round commitments from their athletes.
In 2023, 1WYO Inc. was established on behalf of UW to support its athletes. Unlike other NIL collectives around the country that offer generous sums to student athletes without connections to charitable causes, the UW program allows fans to direct their donations to a specific sport. Fans can also request a specific charity or athlete that they’d like to support with in-kind support from the athlete.
“All those kind of things are really good — good for the big kids and good for a lot of charities,” Harshman said.
Although Harshman hasn’t had any discussions with his high school athletes about NIL, he said these conversations are definitely happening in other parts of the country among recruits eyeing college athletic scholarships.
‘Tone-Deaf’
Lily Meskers, a Montana track athlete who first made public the Tester offer to athletes, told Fox News that she "immediately felt frustration" upon receiving the email because of Tester’s vote against a bill that would have generally prohibited schools from allowing transgender females from participating in female sports.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman also thought that this vote was significant.
“It is incredibly tone-deaf for Senator Tester, who voted against keeping biological men out of women’s sports, to seek the support of female athletes when it benefits him,” Hageman said. “This is a desperate ploy that has clearly failed. I commend Lily Meskers and all the Montana women who rightly rejected this asinine and embarrassing campaign tactic.”
Tester is trailing his Republican opponent Tim Sheehy by a few percentage points in most polls.
Sheehy has received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, who spoke at a rally on the candidate’s behalf in Bozeman, Montana, in August.
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, believes the NIL offers are reflective of Tester becoming nervous about the race.
“It is clear that Jon Tester and his allies in Montana are growing increasingly concerned about his reelection, which is why outside groups are now offering student athletes money in exchange for endorsements,” she said. “This is wrong, plain and simple.
“If Jon Tester were having a successful campaign, he’d be getting endorsements without paying for them. It is misleading to voters who are unaware of this scheme, and I would not expect Wyoming politicians to stoop this low.”
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, similarly said he would never use “desperate tactics” to solicit athletes for endorsements.
“It’s not surprising to hear Jon Tester’s campaign allies are frantically trying to buy votes wherever they can,” he said. “His liberal voting record resulted in record inflation and skyrocketing energy prices that are crushing Montana families.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
