WNBA players are wearing “Vote Warnock” t-shirts to promote the opponent to Atlanta Dream owner and US Senator Kelly Loeffler in protest to Loeffler’s continued and vocal stance that players should not be allowed to express political views.

The WNBA players, including the players on the Atlanta Dream, team which Loeffler owns, will wear the t-shirts during pre-game warm-ups this week.  The t-shirts support the campaign of Loeffler’s opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Washington Post reports.

Loeffler has complained about players wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts and “Black Lives Matter” being stenciled on the court at IMG Academy in Florida, where the WNBA is playing an abbreviated schedule due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Loeffler was appointed to her Senate seat in January 2020 when republican Senator  Johnny Isakson resigned for health reasons.  Prior to that, she was senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications for International Exchange, a financial services provider, whose CEO she dated and eventually married.

Loeffler wrote to the WNBA commissioners urging the league to force players to wear American flags on their uniforms and removing “political” messaging from games.

“The truth is, we need less — not more politics in sports. In a time when polarizing politics is as divisive as ever, sports has the power to be a unifying antidote,” Loeffler said. “And now more than ever, we should be united in our goal to remove politics from sports.”

Loeffler claims that the slogan “Black Lives Matter” is a “a message of exclusion” and that she opposes it because of its “radical ideals and Marxist foundations.”  She told the Atlanta Constitution Journal, “This is just more proof that the out-of-control cancel culture wants to shut out anyone who disagrees with them.”

In fact, no one is being excluded from playing in or watching WNBA games, and no “culture” is being “canceled.”

WNBA players and their union pushed to have Loeffler removed as a league owner, but the commissioners office said that wasn’t possible.

“This was a situation where given what was said in regards to the owner of Atlanta and how, basically, she came out against a lot of what the women in our league stand for, I think it was emotionally tough for a lot of the women in our league to hear that,” Seattle Storm player Sue Bird told ESPN. “But very quickly we started to realize that this was only happening for her political gain. This was something that she wanted. And the more noise we made, whether it was a tweet saying to get her out, that was just playing into her hands.

“I’m not some political strategist, but what I do know is that voting is important. And I think our league has always encouraged people to use their voices and to get out and vote. So, what a great way for us to get the word out about this man [Warnock], and hopefully put him in the Senate. And, if he’s in the Senate, you know who’s not and I’ll just leave it at that.”