- A notable portion of Silicon Valley’s citizens has steadily shifted towards Donald Trump.
- While the area stays solidly Democrat, the GOP candidate made good points on this election.
Silicon Valley, lengthy thought of a progressive stronghold, has begun to shift towards Donald Trump, in keeping with new voting information analyzed by Business Insider.
Across the three San Francisco Bay Area counties that represent the epicenter of America’s tech business, there was a marked bump in help for Donald Trump within the newest presidential election, and a corresponding lower in help for Kamala Harris and the Democrats, provisional voter information reveals.
California can take weeks to tally all its ballots, so the ultimate totals will not be identified for a while. But with greater than 76% of the votes counted in San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties as of Tuesday, a development is rising.
Among the voting residents of Santa Clara county, residence of Apple, Google, and Nvidia, 28.2% solid their poll for Donald Trump this 12 months. That’s up from 4 years in the past, and notably greater than in 2016.
Meanwhile, 68.1% voted for Harris. That was down from 72.6% who backed Joe Biden 4 years in the past, and 73.1% who voted for Hilary Clinton in 2016, in keeping with information compiled by the California Secretary of State.
In San Mateo county, the place Facebook mum or dad firm Meta is headquartered, the vote shifted from 77.9%-20.2% Republican-Democrat to 73.6%-23.5% this cycle.
And San Francisco county’s vote for Trump went from 9.3% in 2016 to fifteen.3% this 12 months.
These numbers present that Trump and Republicans are nonetheless a good distance off from gaining any actual majorities in Silicon Valley. However, even this comparatively small shift means that the area, and the tech business, is turning into much less firmly Democrat — and comes as some tech leaders develop extra pragmatic about politics.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg beforehand publicly supported Democratic candidates, however did not this 12 months. Venture capital energy gamers Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz stated they have been supporting Trump this summer season, although Horowitz additionally offered funding for the Harris marketing campaign.
While Elon Musk is predicated in Texas as of late, lots of his corporations, together with Tesla, are nonetheless very energetic in Silicon Valley. He sunk a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} into serving to reelect Trump this 12 months, is undoubtedly the president-elect’s most high-profile supporter in tech.
Incoming Vice President JD Vance as soon as labored in enterprise capital and is seen as a protégé of PayPal cofounder and investor Peter Thiel, certainly one of tech’s most influential conservative voices.
Some of this comes all the way down to self-interest. Trump, with Musk in help, has promised to chop rules, which may assist Silicon Valley startups develop extra shortly.
“The most fun factor of all will likely be placing Elon answerable for authorities effectivity,” stated Ben Narasin, a VC based mostly in Atherton, in San Mateo county. “He’s going to take a chainsaw by calcified butter, and it may be superior to assault the bloat and overreach that we have had within the authorities.”
The development towards Trump within the Silicon Valley citizens mirrors statewide and nationwide tendencies. Nationwide, the Democrats fell from 51.3% to 48.1%, whereas the GOP rose from 46.9% to 50.2%.
In California, Democrat voteshare dropped from 63.5% in 2020 to 58.9%, as of the information out there on Tuesday.
