Sophie Cunningham Promises She Isn’t MAGA - The Cut

What the report says

The Cut reported that WNBA player Sophie Cunningham addressed speculation about her political views in a new ESPN profile, saying she is not aligned with the “MAGA” label and describing herself as “very much in the middle.” Cunningham said people often make assumptions about her because she is white and from Missouri, and because she has not previously offered a categorical denial of conservative politics.

According to The Cut’s account of the ESPN interview, Cunningham said she agrees and disagrees with ideas on both sides of the political spectrum. She also rejected claims that she hates transgender people, saying she had not made such a statement. At the same time, she said she wants to “protect women’s sports” and referred to concerns about girls competing against “biological men,” language The Cut framed as echoing a common conservative argument against transgender women’s participation in women’s and girls’ sports.

The article placed Cunningham’s remarks within the broader U.S. political and legal fight over transgender athletes. The Cut noted that the Trump administration has pursued executive actions tying federal funding to a definition of sex based on sex assigned at birth, and it referenced a June Supreme Court ruling that the publication said allowed states to bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

The comments matter because Cunningham is a prominent WNBA figure speaking on an issue that has become a major cultural and policy dispute. The Cut’s piece is critical of her framing, while the core development is her attempt to define her politics publicly and distance herself from assumptions about partisan identity.