Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Silicon Valley’s Democrats aren’t galvanized by Trump any more than Republicans are — if you look at their donation history

Bay Area donations to Democrats and liberal causes, however, still rose by $54 million compared to totals in 2014.

Marchers in the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade carry a ballon rainbow sign that spells out “Resist.”
Marchers in the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade carry a ballon rainbow sign that spells out “Resist.”
Elijah Nouvelage / Getty

Democratic leaders claim that they have turned Silicon Valley into ground zero of the #Resistance, with a San Francisco base that is energized by the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

But that’s not exactly backed up by campaign finance data, which shows that Democrats in the Bay Area aren’t disproportionately raking in more cash than are Republicans when comparing this midterm election cycle to the last.

People living in the San Francisco area have given $188 million to federal Democratic candidates, party groups and liberal super PACs during this cycle, according to data pulled for Recode by the Center for Responsive Politics. That’s a 41 percent increase from the $133 million they took in during the last midterm cycle in 2014.

But Republicans raised 49 percent more this cycle from the area than they did in 2014 — albeit from a smaller base amount. Corresponding Republican and conservative groups took in $26.4 million this cycle, versus $17.7 million in the cycle prior.

Another way to look at the numbers, though, is more favorable to the narrative of Democratic energy: In absolute terms, donations to the left from Silicon Valley residents rose by $54 million while right-leaning donations grew by only $8.7 million since the last midterm cycle in 2014. Overall, the absolute amount of donations to Democrats and liberal causes remains seven times that of Republicans and conservative groups.

CRP was able to parse Federal Election Commission data among Bay Area ZIP codes to see how political donations have changed from the last midterm cycle to this one. This includes donations to individual candidates and party committees as well as to outside spending groups. When the donations are to a group or PAC, CRP designated them as liberal or conservative based on their spending patterns.

Overall, Democratic and Republican donations from those ZIP codes rose 43 percent to nearly $230 million so far this midterm cycle. CRP included all itemized donations — meaning over $200 — available up to 12 days before the election, when candidates and groups file a “pre-general report” with the FEC.

Political spending nationwide is projected to increase by about 35 percent between the 2014 and 2018 election cycles, according to CRP. So Silicon Valley donations are outpacing the national average.

The campaign finance landscape looked very different in midterm cycles before 2014 thanks to the landmark Supreme Court decision in 2010, Citizens United and related cases, which paved the way for super PACs.

National Democrats have long looked to Silicon Valley as a fundraising base alongside other wealthy liberal areas like Hollywood and New York City. Republicans still do well in some of those areas, but they’ve also focused on reliably conservative cash cows like the Houston and Dallas metro areas.

Obviously, not all those people who live in the Bay Area work in tech. Tech employees, though, in general tend to be liberal; of employees at major tech companies who donated to candidates this election cycle, about 85 percent gave to Democrats. (Their tech company employers, however, are less partisan, at least as far as their PAC spending goes.)

And this cycle in particular has seen Democratic tech leaders in Silicon Valley talk a big game about how much they are energized.

“I and many others in the tech sector who are civically engaged are investing an enormous amount of resources and energy into efforts around the midterm elections in November,” prominent Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway told Recode in September.

Conway is part of a class of top investors and executives, from LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman to Y Combinator head Sam Altman, who are cutting high-dollar checks to Democrats. In the aftermath of the 2016 cycle, though, several big Democratic givers have said that they are focusing more on tech-enabled political nonprofits — which aren’t required to disclose their fundraising, thus influencing the above totals — as opposed to traditional party groups.

Donations below $200 are not required to be individually identified and therefore can’t be included in this analysis. Individuals may give up to $2,700 to federal candidates, more than $100,000 to national party committee accounts and unlimited amounts to super PACs.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

See More:

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh