By Ilana Siyance
President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign achieved success thanks to generous donations from employees of large technology corporations.
As reported by the Wall St Journal, recently released campaign finance records have revealed that the tech donations surpassed contributions from employees at usual Democratic fundraising sources like banks and law firms. The records show that President Biden received over $15.1 million from employees of just five big tech companies—namely Google’s parent Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp, Amazon Inc, Apple Inc, and Facebook Inc. The single largest source of employee money for Biden’s campaign was $5.3 million donated by employees of Alphabet. In the past, Democratic Presidential candidates also got heavily funded by tech companies, but top employee cash was also coming from other sectors. Of course, corporations are banned from directly donating to campaigns, but their employees can contribute freely as individuals.
In 2016, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s top donors included employees from personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, and JPMorgan Chase bank, as well as Google, Microsoft and Apple, as per election records. In 2012, President Barack Obama’s top donors included Microsoft and Google, in addition to Deloitte, Time Warner (now part of AT&T Inc), and the law firm DLA Piper.
By Contrast, Mr. Trump’s top donors in 2020 were corporate employees of American Airlines Group Inc, Boeing Co., Bank of America Corp, Lockheed Martin Corp, and Wells Fargo & Co, as per the Center for Responsive Politics’s analysis.
The research highlights and substantiates Republicans assertions that big tech companies are biased against them. Republicans have also said that Facebook and Google censored online content on their platforms in line with their own liberal views. “There is a disconnect between the tech industry and many Republicans,” said Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “We don’t like Silicon Valley — and they don’t like us.”
Despite the support Democrats received from the big techs, Bid has hinted that he will not support continuity for the broad legal immunity that big tech conglomerates currently enjoy. Still, time will tell how the Biden administration will proceed. A crucial factor that tech companies are waiting on, is the administration’s key picks for the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s antitrust division head. Those appointments will largely indicate the government’s course of action regarding existing investigations and initiation of new probes, as per the WSJ.
