Silicon Valley is showing fresh interest in Kamala Harris‘ campaign as it attempts to win back Democratic donors who withheld support from President Joe Biden. This sector has become more and more in favor of Donald Trump.
Democrats claim it was exaggerated to indicate that donations from the tech industry were shifting to Republicans. All agree, however, that Harris, a Californian who began his political career in the Bay Area, has unlocked support that had been dormant.
Venture capitalist and 2006 candidate for governor of California Steve Westly commented, “Over the past three days, there has been a significant turn around.” “I don’t believe I’ve ever been a part of a campaign where there was such a surge of enthusiasm.”
Voters in the tech sector applauded the CHIPS Act and a climate package that Westly dubbed the “biggest green stimulus in human history” as achievements of the Biden administration. According to him, Harris has a proven track record on topics that Silicon Valley funders find important.
“She has been vocal about R&D tax credits and everything that has helped the sector, including GPS and the internet. The speaker cited Trump’s criticism of electric vehicles and green energy plans as examples of his “outlandish statements.” In general, consistency is what most people in business and technology want. They wish to prevent crowds from storming the Capitol.
Westly’s Atherton, California, mansion has frequently played host to expensive gatherings for Democratic candidates, one of which included Biden in June 2023. In response to the overwhelming clamor to support Harris, he stated that plans were already in motion to schedule additional events, but he noted that the short notice makes things challenging.
“After sending out our first email, we raised $50,000 in less than an hour, and we don’t even have a date,” he claimed. Everyone is aware of the value of time. [Events] must be two or three times larger than customary.
Democratic contributor and venture investor Ron Conway was one of the people who had voiced disapproval of Biden’s performance in the June 27 debate and urged Democratic leaders to put pressure on Biden to resign. He gave NBC News a statement in which he commended Harris.
“I think that when we are innovating and evolving, looking forward rather than backward, we are at our strongest as a nation. He remarked, “Vice President Harris holds that opinion, but Donald Trump does not.
“For this reason, I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of the tech community in Silicon Valley and beyond will support her wholeheartedly as a member of a large coalition that will elect her to the Oval Office in order to maintain the positive course of our nation.”
However, persuading dependable Democratic donors to reopen the faucet after turning off Biden is not the only task at hand. Additionally, some funders are being seduced by Trump.
Elon Musk, arguably the most well-known figure in the tech industry right now, has contributed millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign via a super PAC that is also backed by the Winklevoss twins and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.
According to CNBC, Conway, fellow Democratic fundraiser Reid Hoffman, and other others have been phoning tech contributors to try and talk them out of supporting Trump. Some members of the tech community, particularly those in positions of leadership in AI and cryptocurrencies, believe the Biden administration has overregulated their sector.
Given Harris’s conflicted record on government restrictions aimed at the internet industry, she may be the Trump substitute that cautious tech executives have been waiting for. According to Fortune, Harris stated in 2019 that “we have to seriously take a look at [a Facebook breakup],” while she was a senator from California. When asked if she agrees with the Biden administration’s backing of legislation that would result in TikTok being banned, a representative for Harris cited an earlier interview with ABC News.
“We don’t plan to outlaw TikTok. That is in no way the aim or intent of this discussion. We have to address the owner of TikTok, and we are concerned about their national security,” the woman stated.
A bill signed by Biden may prohibit the use of TikTok in the US unless the social media platform’s parent firm, ByteDance, based in China, consents to sell it by the beginning of 2025.
Harris has been closely aligned with certain tech leaders for a considerable amount of time. According to Federal Election Commission disclosures, she received over $500,000 in contributions from employees of Amazon, Alphabet, AT&T, Comcast, Microsoft, and Apple during her 2019 Democratic primary.