High-tech officials opened wallets for Biden campaign

WASHINGTON – Employees of major technology companies were an important source of contributions to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, showcasing the recently released campaign financial records, eclipsing employee donations from traditional Democratic fund-raising sources such as banks and offices advocacy.

Employees of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. were the top five sources of money for Biden’s campaign and joint fundraising committees among those who identify corporate employers, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of campaign finance reports.

Biden’s presidential campaign received at least $ 15.1 million in employees from these five technology companies, the records show. The companies declined to comment.

Ticker	Safety	Last	Change	Change %
GOOGL	ALPHABET INC.	2,088.81	-17.00	-0.81%
MSFT	MICROSOFT CORP.	240.97	-2.82	-1.16%
AMZN	AMAZON.COM INC.	3,249.90	-78.33	-2.35%
AAPL	APPLE INC.	129.87	+0.16	+ 0.12%
FB	FACEBOOK INC.	261.56	-7.83	-2.91%

BIDEN’S COVID-19 RELIEF PROPOSAL INCLUDES $ 130 billion FOR SCHOOLS EVEN WHEN BILLIONS OF AID ARE UNEXPECTED

Previous Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, also received large contributions from employees of technology companies, but their main sources of employee donations went beyond the technology sector.

Mrs. Clinton’s largest sources of funds from those who identified corporate employers in 2016 included employees of the personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan and JPMorgan Chase & Co., along with Google, Microsoft and Apple, according to electoral records compiled by nonpartisan Center for Responsive Policy.

Four years earlier, the main sources of contributions from Obama’s corporate employees included Microsoft and Google, but also Deloitte, Time Warner, now part of AT&T Inc., and the law firm DLA Piper.

Although companies are prohibited from donating directly to campaigns, their employees are free to donate as individuals and, together, provide a window into worker trends that are politically active enough to donate in different sectors.

The main sources of corporate employee money for Republican incumbent Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign were employees of American Airlines Group Inc., Boeing Co., Bank of America Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., according to the Center for Responsive Politics Review.

Ticker	Safety	Last	Change	Change %
AAL	AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC.	18.68	+0.97	+ 5.48%
BA	BOEING COMPANY	217.47	+8.99	+ 4.31%
BAC	BANK OF AMERICA CORP.	34.54	+0.35	+ 1.02%
LMT	LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION	335.42	-2.50	-0.74%
WFC	WELLS FARGO & COMPANY	37.83	+0.87	+ 2.35%

PARLER INTERIM CEO SAYS TRUMP, BIDEN WELCOME TO THE PLATFORM

The findings come at a time when Republicans say big tech companies are biased against them, including claims that companies with online platforms like Facebook and Google censor online content to favor liberal views.

“There is a disconnect between the tech industry and many Republicans,” said Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “We don’t like Silicon Valley – and they don’t like us.”

Facebook, Google and other technology platforms have denied in the past that their employees’ policies affect the way they run their businesses.

Some Democrats believe that companies have grown too much and that their platforms have allowed the spread of false political information that helped Trump.

Google, Facebook and Amazon are already targets of antitrust investigations, and there is bipartisan support in Congress for measures that could lessen their influence. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai are due to testify before a House of Representatives panel next month.

GOOGLE TO EVALUATE EXECUTIVES ON DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Biden has signaled that he supports the termination of the broad legal immunity that technology companies currently enjoy for information carried over their networks.

As the Biden government settles in, technology companies await important choices for the Federal Trade Commission and the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division. The appointments can determine how aggressively the government deals with existing investigations or the opening of new ones, company aides said.

The Journal’s analysis is based on the latest data from the Federal Electoral Commission covering the 2020 electoral cycle for the Biden campaign, two joint fundraising committees and individual donations to these committees made through the online donation platform ActBlue. The Journal examined campaign finance data to compile a list of companies whose employees donated more money.

The analysis was based on a standardized version of the employer’s self-reported information on each donation and should be treated as an estimate because some of the public records are incomplete or flawed.

FACEBOOK TO EXPAND EFFORT TO COMBAT CLIMATE INFORMATION, LABEL PUBLICATIONS

Since online donation platforms that detail even the smallest contribution were not widely used in 2016 and 2012, data from previous years includes information only about donors who gave more than $ 200 for a campaign.

About two-thirds of the money in presidential contests is donated to candidates from individuals, who could give up to $ 2,800 to a candidate in recent elections. Those who donate $ 200 or more must disclose the names of their employers.

Although corporations are prohibited from making financial donations to candidates for national office, many companies operate political action committees, or PACs, which are employee-funded accounts that companies use to donate money to favored candidates. Relatively little money in the presidential election comes from corporate PACs. Unions spend millions of dollars each election to support Democratic candidates.

Technology officials made donations to other political entities that worked to elect Biden and other Democrats, including Future Forward USA PAC, who spent millions of dollars in the 2020 elections.

Biden’s campaign, according to the Journal’s analysis, received $ 3.7 million employees from five of the largest Wall Street companies: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan. In previous elections, these companies were among the main sources of money for the Democratic presidential candidate, the records show.

DISCOVER FOX BUSINESS ON THE MOVE BY CLICKING HERE

That was less than the total contributed to Biden by Alphabet employees, who donated $ 5.3 million, making the technology company the main source of money, shows the Journal’s analysis.

Google employees were the main source of donations for the Clinton campaign in 2016 and the second largest source of money for the Obama race in 2012.

Amazon employees contributed a total of $ 2.8 million to Biden’s campaign. Amazon was the third largest source of money among companies for Biden in the election. The company was not a great source of campaign money for previous Democratic candidates, the records show.

Microsoft employees have long been an important source of money for Democratic presidential candidates. Microsoft employees donated $ 3.2 million to Biden in the election.

Facebook employees have emerged as a major source of money, donating $ 1.9 million to their campaign, the records show.

Other important sources of money for Biden were the employees of Lowercase Capital, Oracle Corp., Netflix Inc., Saban Capital Group and Morgan & Morgan, show the data analyzed by the Journal. Lowercase Capital is a venture capital firm that was one of the first investors on Twitter, Uber Technologies Inc. and Instagram, now part of Facebook.

–Chad Day contributed to this article.