Former President Trump’s announcement of Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate is bolstering support for the Republican ticket among conservatives in Silicon Valley, who have increasingly consolidated around the former president.
The 39-year-old former venture capitalist joins the Republican ticket as a growing number of leaders in Silicon Valley – once considered a liberal bastion – have rallied around Trump, especially in the wake of an assassination attempt on the former president last weekend.
Billionaire technology mogul Elon Musk formally endorsed Trump on Saturday, shortly after the shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Musk’s endorsement marks a turning point for the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and social platform X, which previously supported Democrats.
“In recent months, Elon has been signaling that he is leaning toward the Republican side,” said Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. time for him to formalize this.”
Like Musk, several wealthy tech leaders who once donated to Democrats now support Trump. They join a small existing contingent of conservatives in Silicon Valley, as well as a growing group of cryptocurrency investors who are unhappy with the Biden administration’s approach to the emerging digital asset industry.
This group applauded the decision to bring Vance onto the Republican ticket on Monday.
Jacob Helberg, senior advisor to the CEO of Palantir Technologies, said in a post on X that the Ohio senator “will be a historic and exceptionally capable vice president.” Helberg, once a major Democratic donor, reportedly donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign.
Investor Balaji Srinivasan pointed to Vance’s history as a “successful technology investor” and his understanding of “the military, media, technology, finance and politics” in describing him as a “great choice for vice president.”
Venture capitalist David Sacks, a longtime Republican Party donor who hosted a fundraiser for the former president at his San Francisco home in June, praised the Marine Corps veteran as an “American patriot.” adding: “This is who I want next to Trump.”
“God bless JD, God bless Trump and God bless the USA,” he wrote on X.
Sacks also praised Vance and Trump’s ticket while speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday.
Sacks, Musk and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson were reportedly part of a last-minute lobbying campaign, pressuring Vance behind the scenes, according to Axes.
Vance, known for his memoir-turned-film “Hillbilly Elegy,” has ties to the world of technology, but in his political life he has been an outspoken critic of the power held by the biggest technology companies. After graduating from Yale Law School in 2015, Vance joined Mithril Capital, Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm. He founded his own Ohio-based venture capital firm, Narya, in 2019.
Vance became one of Trump’s most prominent supporters on Capitol Hill, as an advocate for his policies in the Senate. But before his election to the Senate in 2022, he was a critic of the former president. He called Trump an “idiot” and “harmful” and described him as “America’s Hitler.”
In May, Vance said he was “wrong” about his comments about Trump in 2016.
While Vance is part of a growing populist movement in the Republican Party, his tech critiques have also placed him alongside some of the most progressive members of Congress — especially on issues related to controlling the power of tech giants.
At a forum hosted by Bloomberg in February, Vance offered support for Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan, a frequent target of GOP attacks.
“A lot of my Republican colleagues look at Lina Khan… and say, ‘Well, Lina Khan is kind of involved in some kind of fundamental evil.’ And I think I see Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration who I think is doing a good job,” Vance said.
But at the same time, Vance’s anti-Big Tech agenda is also in line with right-wing figures who have criticized big tech companies over allegations of online censorship of conservatives.
These claims were reinforced when mainstream platforms such as Twitter and Facebook expelled Trump in 2021 following comments he made about the January 6 Capitol riot. Twitter, which became X under Musk, allowed Trump back after the ownership change. Meta-owned Facebook also lifted its ban on Trump’s account.
Stacy Rosenberg, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, said voters will likely be less aware of Vance’s experience in the technology industry and will instead pay attention to his stance on controversial social issues such as access to reproductive health care. and gun rights.
But her venture capital experience could be an advantage in bringing additional resources from the tech industry and super PACs in line, she added.
A newly formed pro-Trump super PAC, America PAC, raised large sums from close Musk allies last month, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.
Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale donated $1 million, as did Doug Leone, partner at Sequoia Capital, and Antonio Gracias, CEO of Valor Equity Partners.
Another Sequoia partner, Shaun Maguire, contributed $500,000, while Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto firm Gemini, best known for their role in founding Facebook, each donated $250,000.
Musk, who is currently the world’s richest person with a net worth of more than $250 billion, plans to commit about $45 million a month to America PAC, according to America PAC. Wall Street Journal.
The support from some technology industry leaders could also be an indication that they are betting on Trump’s victory, Rosenberg said.
“There may be a kind of strategic element here, from a business perspective, of wanting to be in the game, and that means showing support for those who are likely to control these contracts,” she said.
After last weekend’s shooting, momentum in the 2024 race “shifted dramatically” toward Trump, Chakravorti noted.
The former president currently leads Biden by 1.7 points, just under four months before the election, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling average.
After Biden’s poor debate performance in late June, Democrats have been largely in disarray, with some calling for the 81-year-old president to withdraw from the race. At the same time, Trump was encouraged after surviving Saturday’s assassination attempt and having his federal charges of improperly withholding classified documents dismissed.
“I think a lot of people in technology, finance and other industry people are going to at least lean in Trump’s direction because they don’t want to get on the wrong side of what they believe the supposed new administration to be,” Chakravorti told The Hill.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
