Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance shakes hands with former President Donald Trump during a rally in Delaware, Ohio, in 2023.
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While Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’s Appalachian roots are well known, another aspect of Vance’s background is now drawing attention thanks to his best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy”: his relationship with a prominent Silicon Valley billionaire. relation.
Vance published a book in 2016 about his childhood struggles as he began to quietly solidify his ties to a group of ultra-wealthy tech power brokers who could be considered the antithesis of the Rust Belt’s working class.
Now, as President Trump’s pick for vice president, many elite tech leaders have coalesced around Republican support and look to fund Trump’s re-election campaign.
Here are five things you need to know about why the tech billionaire class is backing Vance and what it means for the 2024 presidential election.
Elon Musk and influential venture capitalists lead Trump/Vance backing
Musk endorsed Trump just minutes after a gunman attempted to assassinate the former Pennsylvania president, and he doubled down on his support when Trump announced Vance as his running mate.
While working in venture capital in San Francisco, Vance became a protégé of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, considered the kingmaker in Silicon Valley. When Vance ran for Senate, Thiel donated $15 million to boost his campaign.
Vance has also made progress with former tech executive and podcaster David Sacks, who has become Musk’s loud cheerleader since the billionaire acquired Twitter (now X). Sacks, who recently hosted a Trump fundraiser at his home in San Francisco, was a speaker at the Republican National Convention this week. Trump made $12 million from Sacks campaign.
Musk and Sachs use X as a megaphone to shout loudly for Trump and Vance every day. “Come on in,” Sacks wrote on X on Tuesday, after listing a list of prominent tech figures who now support Trump. “The water is warm.”
Tech billionaires have donated millions expected to boost Trump/Vance campaign
Shortly after Vance was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick, a new tech-related super PAC was formed called America PAC.
The group, backed by crypto billionaires the Winkelvoss twins, data analytics company Palantir Joe Lonsdale co-founders, Doug Leone of powerful venture capital Sequoia Capital and others, has raised more than 10%, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings. $8 million.
The group’s war chest could become a powerful force for the Trump campaign.
Andreessen and Horowitz are preparing to inject cash into the group. and wall street journal Elon Musk can reportedly devote $45 million per month to the effort.
Trump’s Vance pick has won praise in the cryptocurrency community, where investors hope for looser regulation of digital currencies. Vance said in his latest federal financial disclosure that he owns between $100,000 and $250,000 in Bitcoin.
Tech elites see Vance as a change agent in tax policy, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency regulations
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who run a prominent venture capital firm that bears their names, released a podcast on Tuesday laying out their reasons for supporting Trump and Vance .
Horowitz said he was reluctant to get involved in politics, but he had no choice because “the future of our business, the future of technology, new technology, and the future of America are literally at stake.”
The two said the Biden administration’s proposed regulations on cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence are too strict. They expressed concern that Biden’s re-election would weaken American innovation.
Their company has invested in numerous cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence startups, making big bets on both industries. As economist Hammond said: “Whether this bet pays off depends entirely on the policies of the U.S. government. “
Anderson, who has historically supported the Democratic Party, said the “last straw” that led him to abandon Biden was the president’s policy on the super-rich: a 25% tax on unrealized gains for households worth more than $100 million.
Anderson claimed on the podcast that imposing such a tax on the wealthiest Americans “is completely unbelievable to startups.” “Venture funding just ended. Companies like ours don’t exist.
“If there’s any unifying ideology to the rise of the right in Silicon Valley, it’s that the system is broken and they can build parallel ones,” Samuel Hammond, an economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, a right-leaning think tank, told NPR. consciousness.
Tech billionaires back Trump, Vance as way to fight so-called ‘wokeism’
While many of the tech moguls who have backed Trump and Vance have touted policy positions that favor Silicon Valley, another factor is that tech elites now support Republicans, believing they are on the side against liberals.
Whether it’s opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion rules or supporting policies for transgender youth, Musk, Sachs, and other tech elites have used X to go on the offensive on culture war issues.
In Vance, not only did they have someone who said “the DEI agenda is a destructive ideology,” but they also had someone with a venture capital background who wanted to fight a culture war.
“Many people who previously considered themselves liberal are now reimagining themselves or converting themselves toward a form of right-wing populism, namely Trumpism. Vance is a great example of this,” Max Chafkin ), who wrote “Contrarian: Peter Thiel and the Quest for Power in Silicon Valley,” which discusses Vance.
“J.D. Vance is considered one of them,” Chavkin added. “His policy stance could also be seen as tech-friendly,” he said. “But I think that’s secondary to identity.”
Not all of Silicon Valley supports MAGA, but support from the venture capital community is growing
Most of the tech community is still very liberal. Rank-and-file tech employees at large companies and small startups tend to support Democrats, and their donations often support left-leaning causes.
The Information, a popular Silicon Valley technology news site, conducted a reader survey this week and found that nearly 60% of respondents plan to vote for President Biden in November.
However, for tech financiers and their elite friends, it’s a different story, says author Chavkin.
“It’s easy to describe this in general terms and say all of Silicon Valley is behind the former president, but the reality is that the right wing of Silicon Valley has been activated and persuaded to dig into their pockets,” he said.
Executives at the largest companies including Apple, Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have yet to endorse any candidate, continuing a tradition of big tech leadership sitting on the sidelines in presidential elections.
