Big tech employees overwhelmingly support Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D.), contributing tens of thousands of dollars to her campaign ...
Big tech employees overwhelmingly support Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D.), contributing tens of thousands of dollars to her campaign while giving no money to Republican challenger Eric Hovde, according to a review of Federal Election Commission data.
Employees and high level executives at the Big Five — Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft — are stepping in to help Baldwin amid her contentious campaign for a third term in the Senate. The notoriously left-learning tech industry has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks as Google and Meta face accusations of censoring information about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Baldwin has received nearly $70,000 dollars from employees of the Big Five, with over half coming from employees at Google, according to a Daily Wire review of Federal Election Commission data. Hovde, a Wisconsin businessman, appears to have received no donations to his Hovde for Wisconsin or Hovde Victory Committee from workers at those tech companies.
Employees and executives of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, have given at least $35,520 in donations to Baldwin so far this election cycle.
Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, has donated $6,600 to Baldwin this election cycle while Google CMO Lorraine Twohill gave Baldwin $3,300. Fernando Pereira, a vice president and engineering fellow at Google, gave $1,500 to Baldwin while Vinton Cerf, another Google executive, gave the Democratic senator $3,300.
Donations from employees at the other four tech giants were similarly lopsided, though smaller in number. Amazon employees gave Baldwin $13,172, while Microsoft employees gave her $12,175. Workers at Apple donated just $4,575, while Meta employees gave $2,721.
While Baldwin won her last election in 2018 by over 10 points, her race this November is expected to be closer, with Wisconsin projected to be one of the battleground states that determines the result of the presidential election. Hovde, who locked up the Republican nomination on Tuesday, is backed by Trump.
Zach Bannon, a spokesman for Hovde, said that the tech donations showed that Baldwin is a “bought and paid for corporate special interest career politician.”
“She sides with the big-tech donors that fund her campaign over the concerns of everyday Wisconsinites, which is why the people of Wisconsin are tired of corrupt career politicians and are ready for change,” he told The Daily Wire.
As a senator, Baldwin has called for crackdowns on alleged “misinformation” on topics from monkeypox to COVID vaccines, frequently calling on companies like Facebook and Google to further restrict certain information.
For example, in January 2021 Baldwin joined efforts to urge social media platforms like Google and Facebook to restrict posts critical of COVID vaccines.
“While we understand that your companies have implemented policies regarding the removal of vaccine-related misinformation and dedicated resources to stop the spread of misinformation, we believe more must be done. It is imperative that you be transparent about the amount of harmful misinformation that appears on your platforms and the effectiveness of your efforts to remove this content, so that public health organizations and experts can respond appropriately,” Baldwin wrote.
Baldwin did not return a request for an interview about her stance on “misinformation” and Big Tech.
The left bias of Google employees is no surprise, as donations weresimilarly lopsided in key Senate races during the 2022 election. The search engine has consistently asserted that it is politically neutral and not biased against conservatives.
However, in the weeks following the assassination attempt on Trump, users noticed that Google would not autocomplete searches related to the attack. In response, Republican lawmakers have launched an investigation into the platform, calling for comprehensive documentation of the company’s policies and programs.
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