Democrats look to World Cup watch parties to register thousands of voters

The Democratic National Committee is betting the world’s biggest sporting event can help build its voter base.

The DNC is launching a nationwide voter registration effort for Sunday’s World Cup final, dispatching organizers, volunteers and campaign staff to FIFA Fan Zones, sports bars and community watch parties with the goal of registering more than 3,000 new Democratic voters.

The effort underscores how both political parties are increasingly viewing major sporting events as opportunities to reach voters — particularly young Americans who may be less likely to attend traditional political events but are gathering in large numbers around the monthlong tournament. In the case of the World Cup final, more than 80,000 people are expected to attend in person.

“From outside FIFA Fan Zones and at World Cup watch parties to bars, restaurants and parks, we’ll spend the weekend registering thousands of new Democrats and having conversations about how we win races up and down the ballot,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

The weekend push spans nearly two dozen states, with Democratic organizers attending events in battlegrounds including Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida. In Arizona, Democrats plan registration efforts in Phoenix, Chandler, Tempe, Tucson and Yuma.

The campaign builds on the DNC’s broader “When We Count” initiative focused on young voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Unlike traditional registration drives centered on college campuses, the program deliberately targets young Americans who are already in the workforce.

About one-third of the program’s fellows are native Spanish speakers.

The party is pairing the registration effort with a four-part national training series that it says will equip more than 1,500 organizers, campaign staff and volunteers with best practices for partisan voter registration.

Professional sports leagues have increasingly embraced civic engagement around elections, and the NBA and WNBA are some of the most visible examples, using arenas as polling locations and partnering on nonpartisan voter registration drives. And conservatives have previously registered voters at NASCAR events.

“The power in sport is that people gather. It creates a sense of belonging,” said Lee Igel, a professor of global sport at New York University. “If you want to get 3,000 people registered to vote at a watch party for a sports mega-event, you’d be hard-pressed not to get closer to 30,000 people” registered.

Igel said the DNC’s initiative takes that relationship between sports and civic participation a step further.

“There’s some precedent when it comes to voting and sports,” he said. “But this picks up on a more recent trend of politicians, elected officials and the organizations they’re connected to tapping into the power of sport.”

He pointed to leaders across the political spectrum, including President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as examples of politicians increasingly recognizing sports’ cultural reach.

“Sport is fun and games,” Igel said, “but the attention it attracts in communities — from eyeballs to people in person — is enormous.”

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