Silicon Valley had a big night in California’s primary election, proving that the tens of millions of dollars funding candidates across the state was money well spent. While the tech industry’s preferred candidate for governor came in a scant sixth place, donations to smaller elections proved to be a successful strategy.
Tech billionaires have in past months thrown their full weight into politics as the industry fights regulation and taxation, while promoting the unfettered growth of artificial intelligence. Getting the right candidates in office, especially in its home turf of California, is existential. With favorable candidates, tech companies can gain both political and regulatory leverage to maintain their dominance in business.
Tuesday’s primary election in California saw unprecedented spending, much of which came from top tech companies, such as Google and Meta, as well as from dozens of executives and venture capitalists.
The candidate grabbing the most headlines was Matt Mahan, the San Jose Democratic mayor who in January threw in his hat for governor and quickly became a Silicon Valley favorite. He amassed roughly $50m in donations, largely from the tech industry, including from former and current executives at Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, DoorDash, Palantir and more, public records show.
While his loss – Mahan conceded on Tuesday night after gaining just 4% of the vote in early results – was bruising to the tech industry, it was just one race among what appeared to be several wins. Scott Wiener, tech’s pick to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress, won the most votes and was advancing toward the midterms in November. And while votes were still being counted, it looked like Ben Allen, the industry’s choice for state insurance commissioner, could also advance.
Super political action committees (Super Pacs) funded by the tech world also saw a series of wins in smaller district races for the state legislature across the state.
Grow California, which has a combined $20m from crypto moguls Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, contributed millions to six local races, while also spending to oppose five candidates, according to public records. And California Leads, a Super Pac funded with a combined $10m from Google and Meta, also spent millions to support eight local assembly and senate candidates in the state.
The long-term strategy for both Grow California and California Leads is to work on the state’s legislature to get their preferred candidates in place – something both Super Pacs outline on their websites. Grow California’s stated goal is to “rebuild a state capital”, and California Leads writes: “Our work is grounded in a simple idea: who serves in the State Legislature matters.”
One candidate the Super Pacs both donated heavily to was Mark Pulido, a Democrat who is running for state assembly in a small district in Orange county. He received about $2.25m from the two Super Pacs and got the votes on Tuesday to advance to a run-off against the Republican candidate in November. With the exception of one candidate, all of the races that Grow California and California Leads backed, are advancing to the November ballot.
The two Super Pacs appear to have mostly targeted Democratic districts. They supported one favored Democrat, so that candidate would make it to the midterms and essentially get unfavorable Democrats off the ticket.
Even though the tech industry won quite a bit on Tuesday, it also poured millions into losing races, like Mahan’s, proving that political donations are an expensive business.
Election watchers say, however, that the tech industry’s heavy spending on the primaries was just the beginning. “It was just like a drop in the bucket of what’s going to happen,” said Francesco Trebbi, a public policy professor at the University of California in Berkeley.
“By September, you’ll probably see records being broken for midterm campaign spending,” Trebbi said. “It’s going to be exponential.”
That’s sure to happen as the fight over California’s proposed one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires edges closer to a vote. Tech billionaires have already spent many millions to defeat the tax, which is on the November ballot.
Grow California declined to comment and California Leads did not respond to a request for comment.
