By Jimmy Coultier / OpenSecrets
Jimmy Coultier is the money-in-politics reporter at OpenSecrets, covering campaign finance and lobbying. He holds a master’s degree from Arizona State University’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.
Former President Donald Trump’s decision this week to choose Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate was lauded by prominent investors and donors in the tech industry.
David Sacks, the former CEO of Yammer and a vocal supporter of the ex-president, touted Vance as an “American patriot” in a social media post on X, while Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk called the VP pick an “excellent decision.”
The Wall Street Journal later reported that Musk, who endorsed the former president over the weekend, plans to give around $45 million a month through the November election to a pro-Trump super PAC.
The super PAC — simply called America PAC — has raised about $8.8 million since it launched in late May, according to campaign finance reports filed on July 14. Donors include other big name tech elites, such as Shaun Maguire and Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital, Joe Lonsdale of Palantir, and Antonio Gracias, a former director of Tesla and the founder of Valor Equity Partners.
Trump’s VP decision also drew praise from the Heritage Foundation, an influential think tank behind a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the federal government known as Project 2025. Heritage President Kevin Roberts was visibly pleased when he learned of the announcement while speaking to reporters at a policy event outside the National Republican Convention on June 15.
“You will see a broad smile on my face because you may know that we’re good friends,” Roberts said. “Privately we were really rooting for him.”
Vance gained national notoriety following the publication of “Hillbilly Elegy,” his 2016 memoir that chronicled his hard-scrabble upbringing in middle America and offered an explanation for Trump’s appeal among white, working-class voters.
After serving four years in the Marine Corps, Vance studied political science and philosophy at Ohio State University and attended Yale Law School. He went on to work at a large corporate law firm and then as a principal at tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s investment firm in San Francisco before launching his own Ohio-based venture fund in 2020.
Vance was a vocal critic of Trump in 2016 before becoming one of his fiercest advocates. With Trump’s endorsement, Vance won election to the Ohio Senate in 2022, following the most expensive race in state history.
Vance’s former boss, Thiel, helped prop up his Senate campaign, pouring more than $15 million into a super PAC that backed the political newcomer in the primary and general elections, OpenSecrets’ analysis of campaign finance reports found.
Sacks also donated $1 million to the pro-Vance super PAC in 2022.
Trump struggled to keep up with President Joe Biden’s fundraising operation early in the election cycle, and there was speculation that the ex-president would choose a running mate with a record of fundraising or a personal fortune — like Gov. Doug Burgum (R-N.D.), who spent millions of his own money on his political career. But a surge in donations following Trump’s criminal conviction in the New York “hush money” trial helped close the fundraising gap between the former and current president.
At the same time, Vance’s past connections as a venture capitalist could form a bridge between Trump and Silicon Valley, where some tech elites have soured on Biden over the White House’s position on taxes, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.
In June, Vance helped Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya — the founder of Social Capital and a Democratic donor — organize a San Francisco fundraiser for Trump that fetched as much as $300,000 a plate, according to reporting by CNBC.
Another venture capitalist, Marc Andreessen, helped finance Vance’s investment firm. The day after Vance was made Trump’s VP, Andreessen and his business partner, Ben Horowitz, announced that they would be supporting the ex-president’s campaign.
In a video explaining their decision, Andreessen and Horowitz cited the GOP’s pledge in its party platform to champion the cryptocurrency industry, among other issues.
The pair have already poured $47 million to several super PACs this cycle to elect pro-cryptocurrency candidates, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of campaign finance reports. Andreessen and Horowitz previously split their donations between Republicans and Democrats.
As for Thiel, he backed Trump in the past but grew disillusioned with the former president following the 2020 election. At the Aspen Ideas Festival in June, Thiel said that he would vote for Trump “if you hold a gun to my head” but that he has no plans to give money to pro-Trump super PACs.
As of June 30, Thiel had not contributed to any candidates or PACs this cycle, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of campaign finance reports.
Thiel ranked among the largest donors during the 2022 midterm elections.
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