Why Cleveland Indians are preventing Donald Trump from endorsing the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate

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When former President Donald Trump spoke, the Republican party continued to listen. And that’s bad news for Matt Dolan, whom he entered the GOP field chasing a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio.

Dolan is the son of Larry Dolan, who owns the Cleveland Indians. In July, the organization announced plans to change the club’s name to the Cleveland Guardians following the 2021 MLB season. (Larry Dolan is the uncle of James Dolan, who owns the New York Knicks, New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden.)

Matt Dolan, currently an Ohio state senator, called the name change decision a bad result of cultural wars, which put pressure on businesses that sometimes could not be ignored.

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But that’s not enough for Trump, who has stated he won’t support Dolans ’candidacy. According to the New York Post, Trump announced his position in an emailed statement:

Anyone who changes the name of formerly stored Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians should not be running in the United States Senate representing the Great People of Ohio. The Atlanta Braves didn’t change their name, and the Florida State Seminoles didn’t change their chant, but Cleveland changed, and they were there before. Despite this, a man named Matt Dolan, the son of the team owner, said he was against Cancel Culture. Do those two things really work? In any event, I know at least one person in the career that I don’t endorse. The Republican Party has too many RINOs!

Indians isn’t the first professional sports franchise to announce a name change amid the Native American backlash. The Washington Football Team dropped a nickname to the Redskins a year ago in July.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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Mike Rosenstein can be reached at [email protected].

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