In California Senate race, Adam Schiff is favorite among big tech employees

In California’s U.S. Senate race to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, the employees of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft and their leading subsidiaries favor Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, with zero donations to Republican candidates.

Of the $51,529 donated by Big Five employees through the end of 2023, $21,900 went to Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, $17,700 went to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and $11,659 went to Congresswoman Katie Porter, D-Irvine. Not a single dollar went to one of two Republican candidates, former Los Angeles Dodgers star Steve Garvey and attorney Eric Early.

In a February 1 poll from the University of Southern California, Schiff is well in the lead with 25% of voters supporting him, with Porter and Garvey each at 15%. Lee was a distant fourth place at 7%.

Given that Schiff has raised $27.5 million, Porter $25 million, and Lee $4.4 million, Lee is overrepresented among tech donors while Porter is underrepresented. This tracks with Big Tech being concentrated in the Bay Area, which Lee represents, and not in Orange County, which Porter represents.

Employees of the Big Five tech companies are consistent sources of Democratic candidate funding — in 2020, their employees were the five largest funders of President Joe Biden’s campaign and political action committees, donating $15.1 million to the president’s coffers that cycle. Alphabet, which owns Google, was the number one source of donations for the Biden 2020 election, with its employees donating $5.7 million, or more than what employees of the five largest Wall Street firms donated combined.

Google employees were the top donors to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and second-largest in former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.