Nearly 72 percent of likely Georgia voters—including a majority of Democrats—are against changing the Atlanta Braves mascot, a new poll shows.
According to the Trafalgar Group poll released Tuesday evening, about 90 percent of voters who support Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler oppose the name change, compared with roughly 55 percent of voters backing Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
The issue could boost Perdue and Loeffler in Georgia's tight Jan. 5 runoff election. After the Cleveland Indians announced Monday that they will change their name, the Republicans issued a joint statement declaring their opposition to "any effort to rename the Atlanta Braves."
"The Braves' name honors our nation's Native American heritage, which should not be erased," the statement reads. "And under no circumstances should one of the most celebrated teams in sports cave to the demands of the cancel culture and the radical left."
Ossoff and Warnock have yet to weigh in on the issue.
Following the Indians' name change announcement, the Braves are now the only team in Major League Baseball with a Native American mascot. The National Football League's Washington Redskins also dropped their mascot in July, years after owner Dan Snyder vowed to "never change the name of the team." Braves officials responded by asserting that they are not considering a name change.
President Donald Trump criticized Cleveland's decision to change mascots in a Sunday tweet, calling the move "cancel culture at work."