According to a new GovPredict analysis of Federal Election Commission data, Apple employees donate more to Bernie Sanders than any other presidential candidate, with a total of $53,626 going to Bernie Sanders in the fourth quarter of 2019. Andrew Yang was second among Apple employees with $37,516. The list:
- Bernie Sanders: $53,626
- Andrew Yang: 37,516
- Elizabeth Warren: $30,925
- Pete Buttigieg: $20,956
- Joe Biden: $4,051
- Donald Trump: $2,177
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter employees funneled almost $270,000 into the Sanders campaign during the last three months of 2019, according to new fundraising disclosures filed this weekend. Almost half of that money came from employees of Google, according to an analysis for Recode by GovPredict. All told, the new data shows how the rank and file at Big Tech companies are rallying behind some of the candidates who are the least friendly to Big Tech and to the current system of capitalism more broadly.
Also performing surprisingly well with Big Tech employees in the final months of 2019 was Andrew Yang, the nonprofit entrepreneur, who wasn’t far behind Sanders with a haul of $230,000. Yang is not a top-tier candidate and hasn’t raised overall as much as his rivals. But Yang has a legion of fans at many tech companies, likely because he has positioned himself as a friend to the tech industry, often peppering his speeches with references to “my friends in Silicon Valley” when he explains topics like automation.
But the candidate performing the best with these higher-dollar, executive-level donors in the tech industry is Pete Buttigieg, who has ridden a wave of enthusiasm from Silicon Valley for almost his entire campaign. Buttigieg raised about $120,000 from Big Tech employees, although he has the widest support among Silicon Valley’s wealthy outside these companies. (As with Warren, a dozen Big Tech employees maxed out to Buttigieg’s campaign in the final quarter.) His big-money fundraising events that he has hosted near-monthly are packed with Silicon Valley executives and billionaire celebrities.
MacDailyNews Take: So far, Apple employees seem to be feelin’ the Bern.