SURPRISE: Silicon Valley Hero Marc Andreessen Is Backing Romney
Silicon Valley has a reputation for leaning left. — Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Google exec Marissa Mayer have hosted big fundraisers for Democratic candidates. — Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a huge Obama booster.
Context & Ripple Effects
Tech's political money has run heavily Democratic: an analysis of tech employees' 2008 contributions showed donations dramatically favoring Obama, and the sector's most visible executives reinforce that lean — Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Google's Marissa Mayer have hosted big fundraisers for Democrats, while ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a strong Obama supporter.
Against that backdrop, Marc Andreessen endorsing Mitt Romney in March 2012 puts the first marquee venture capitalist on the Republican side of the race, and the story's rapid pickup by outlets including WebProNews and Dan Primack shows how newsworthy the defection reads inside the industry.
First-order effects
- Romney's campaign gains a credible Silicon Valley fundraiser and validator in a region where Obama holds the donor network through figures like Sandberg, Mayer, and Schmidt.
- Andreessen separates himself from the Democratic-aligned executive cohort, forcing a public answer from other Valley VCs about where they stand.
Second-order effects
- Other prominent investors face pressure to declare or donate, since silence now reads as a default Obama position given the sector's documented 2008 giving pattern.
- The Romney campaign gets a template for courting tech donors directly rather than ceding the Valley's checkbooks to the incumbent.
Third-order effects
- If enough founders and investors follow Andreessen, tech's political giving could fracture along investor-versus-executive lines instead of remaining a Democratic bloc, ending the assumption that Silicon Valley votes as one.
- A visible GOP beachhead in the Valley would make both parties compete for tech money in future cycles, raising the sector's bargaining power with whoever holds office.
The trend: Silicon Valley's post-2008 Democratic donor consensus is showing its first cracks at the top, as individual tech leaders begin splitting their endorsements and checks across party lines.