A senior executive for the Milwaukee Bucks, Alex Lasry, launched a Democratic campaign for Wisconsin’s Senate seat in 2022, making the liberal politics of the NBA the foundation of his campaign.
“We’ve been able to use progressive values to build a strong and profitable business,” Lasry, 33, said in a Wednesday campaign launch video. He talked about the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake, and supporters talked about Lasry marching in Black Lives Matter protests.
Lasry seeks the seat currently held by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump. Johnson, in office since 2011, has previously said that he would only serve two terms in the seat, but he has not ruled out running for reelection in 2022.
The Democratic Senate hopeful was previously an aide in the Obama White House, and he is now a senior vice president of the Bucks, focusing on digital marketing. He also chaired the winning bid committee to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
Lasry is the son of billionaire hedge fund manager and Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry and is therefore likely in a position to largely self-fund his campaign. One line in the launch video referenced his wealth: “There’s one thing to have money. But there’s another thing to be respectful of people and demonstrate that respect,” said DNC member and activist Martha Love.
The Milwaukee Bucks sparked a three-day pause in the NBA games over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, when the team refused to come out of the locker room during an August game. The team’s owners, including Marc Lasry, released a statement expressing their support for the move.
Alex Lasry’s campaign launch video pointed to the construction of Fiserv Forum, the home arena of the Bucks that helped keep the team in the state, as a success story.
“We were able to create 10,000 jobs and bring new people into the workforce,” Lasry said.
The $524 million downtown Milwaukee arena, which opened in 2018, included a much-criticized $250 million in public funding. Milwaukee Common Council President Cavalier Johnson noted in the video that the arena construction was “about providing opportunities for folks.”
The video noted that the Bucks arena construction agreement included language to meet certain percentages of women and minorities in the workforce.
“I’ve never been on a job where it’s been so many women included in one project,” Kunita Hunt, who was a construction worker on the arena, said in the video.
An early political challenge for Lasry will be the criticism he received after getting a coronavirus vaccine in January despite not being part of a group eligible to receive one. Lasry said that he got one because his wife’s uncle worked in a facility that had extra vaccines that were about to go bad.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee took a swipe at Lasry’s vaccine misstep in a statement acknowledging his candidacy.
“Wisconsin doesn’t need a spoiled rich kid like Alex Lasry who thinks it’s okay to use his wealth and power to cut in line ahead of vulnerable, elderly Wisconsinites to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as he did last month. Wisconsin deserves better – a Senator who will always put their constituents before themselves, not the other way around,” NRSC communications director Chris Hartline said in a statement.
