Why Jayden Daniels’ injury is bad news for Kamala Harris’ presidential election bid

The list of parties interested in the health of Washington Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels will be unusually large this week ahead of a meeting with the Chicago Bears.

When a player of Daniels’ stature suffers an injury, the people most concerned are typically just his team, the fans, their upcoming opponent and anyone with a gaming stake in his performance, like fantasy managers.

However, in the wake of Daniels suffering a rib injury that has his status in the air for Week 8, a large percentage of the U.S. population and an entire political party will want to make sure the rookie phenom is good to go for a potential showdown with fellow rookie Caleb Williams. And there’s a good reason why.

Washington’s final home game before a presidential election has been incredibly predictive of the outcome of said election in years past. When Washington has won the game, the incumbent political party has typically kept the presidency. When Washington lost, however, the challenging party took over office. The rule has been accurate in 17 of 19 elections.

Thus, with the Democratic Party already in office, everyone pulling for Kamala Harris to win the election will really want to see the Commanders win this week. And Daniels obviously gives them the best chance to do that.

That shouldn’t be taken as a slight to Marcus Mariota, who played really well in relief of Daniels last week. But the Commanders are 2.5-point home dogs to Chicago, and it’ll likely take one of Daniels’ special performances for them to pull off the upset.

Of course, those voting for Donald Trump will love nothing more than to see Daniels sit this one out. Commanders coach Dan Quinn called the quarterback’s status week-to-week but said there’s a chance he’ll play.