United States – Employees in many of the largest companies in the United States technology sector have donated heavily to the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, although some of the most influential technology executives and moguls have supported Mr. Trump, as reported by Reuters.
Alphabet (GOOGL. O), Amazon (AMZN. O), and Microsoft (MSFT. O) employees are contributing millions of dollars to the Harris campaign more than to the Trump campaign, as indicated in the data gathered by OpenSecrets. The information encompasses donations made by the company’s employees, owners, and other related workers and owners’ first-degree relatives.
Executives Favor Trump for Business Policies
But several tech billionaires such as Tesla (TSLA. O) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz are supporting Trump based on his stand on the economy, taxation, and large enterprises.
The Nov. 5 presidential election has polarized Silicon Valley, which was once the epicenter of Democratic and liberal sentiment. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Reid Hoffman from Greylock and billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team Mark Cuban, are two major backers of Harris for the White House in the hope that they would be able to get pro-abortion for workers and pro-tech policies.
However, in the recent past, several other innovation chiefs have raised their eyebrows at Democratic President Joe Biden’s business policies which include, among others, a wide-ranging against mergers and acquisitions and the restriction of data privacy.
Campaign finance laws prevent entities, including businesses, from directly contributing to federal campaigns, including presidential ones. Businesses typically contribute to congressional and state races through PACs, which are financed by employees’ contributions and prohibited from donating certain sums to candidates.
“A lot of companies work with customers on both sides of the political divide, and they don’t want to risk losing business by making donations that fund one party or candidate in a partisan election,” Michael Beckel, the research director at reform nonprofit Issue One, explains. Corporations may not directly contribute to presidential candidates’ campaigns, but their employees are free to do so, and it appears that tech employees are donating to Harris.
Tech Employees Rally Behind Kamala Harris
Every employee of Alphabet and the companies that are a part of Alphabet, such as Google, and their immediate families, have contributed $2. 16 million dollars have been spent on Harris’ campaign, almost 40 times more than what Trump has, as per OpenSecrets.
Employees and family members of Amazon and Microsoft funded up to $1 million and $1. 1 million, respectively. The data indicate that Trump’s campaign received $116,000 from employees of Amazon and 88,000 dollars from Microsoft’s employees, as well as other relatives.
Amazon workers and the company, a leading online retailer and the second-most largest employer in the United States, also reported higher participation than other e-tail and traditional retail donors.
Campaign Finance Restrictions and Corporate Donations
For instance, Walmart employees contributed $275,000 each to Harris and Trump, which shows that both candidates have received nearly equal funding. Currently, Trump’s campaign receives $144,000 from Walmart workers, around $14,000 more than Harris’.
Donations for campaigns are usually from employees of corporations who bear higher disposable income than workers in a warehouse or cashiers, as noted by Sarah Bryner, the director of research and strategy for OpenSecrets.
About Amazon and other corporate employees of the knowledge industry, Bryner said that they earn more than employees of Walmart and are in a position to donate more to political causes.
Higher-Income Employees Lead Donations
Amazon employees who work for the corporation typically earn higher wages than Walmart corporate workers who mostly work in Bentonville, Arkansas. According to the job marketplace ZipRecruiter data, Amazon’s corporate employees in the United States earn $133,000 per year on average, while Walmart’s corporate workers make $85,000 on average annually.
Meta and Apple Employees Also Back Harris
Employees and their families at Meta (META. O) and Apple (AAPL. O) have made no donations of over $1 million to Harris, but they continue to pump more money to her than the. Fragmenting Trump. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Meta employees have contributed $25,000 to Trump, outshining $835,000 to Harris, while Apple employees gave $44,000 to Trump and $861,000 to Harris, as reported by Reuters.
It has been considered more liberal in the U. S. In August, over 100 venture capital investors revealed in an open letter that they supported Harris, who has been described as pro-business and pro-technology innovation.