With the 2024 presidential election drawing near, efforts have been focused on key battleground states in the Midwest and Northeast. However, the spotlight is now on Silicon Valley, as venture capitalists are pumping millions of dollars into both campaigns.
While Democrats may have an advantage on paper in Santa Clara County, the scales appear to be getting more balanced regarding campaign contributions.
"I know founders who have said, you know, that guy's gone off the deep end. I don't even want to pitch him my idea, let alone raise money from him. It just feels like what's going on there," said Eric Ries, a startup founder and supporter of the grassroots networks VCs for Kamala.
Reis, also the author of "The Lean Startup," said he believes VC and startup support for Republican candidate Donald Trump.
"In Silicon Valley writ large, not just among VCs and not just among the wealthiest VCs, the overwhelming energy is for Kamala Harris," he said,
However, influential names in the tech world, such as David Sacks, Peter Theil, and Elon Musk, are backing the former president's campaign.
Political Analyst Larry Gerstion said he considers Silicon Valley reliably blue but that pockets of Republican support have emerged, something he didn't see before this election cycle.
"Liberal Silicon Valley, yeah, you see some people shaking the trees differently than in the past, but we're seeing that a lot in the country," Gerston said. "That's one of the things that makes this election so difficult to predict: the movements that are going back and forth in ways we haven't seen in the past between various groups."
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