U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Georgia State Convocation Center in Atlanta on July 30, 2024.
Elijah Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Images
After Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, gained the vocal support of a slice of the tech investing world, a large group of venture capitalists came together to back the other side.
More than 100 VCs on Wednesday pledged their support to Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee, as she ramps up her campaign to take on Trump in the November election.
The group, calling itself VCs for Kamala, is made up of investors and entrepreneurs from a range of established and rising funds, and different demographic groups. It includes Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban, along with Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, and Rebecca Kaden, a partner at Union Square Ventures.
“We spend our days looking for, investing in and supporting entrepreneurs who are building the future,” the group said in its pledge. “We are pro-business, pro-American dream, pro-entrepreneurship and pro-technological progress. We also believe in democracy as the backbone of our nation. We believe that strong, trustworthy institutions are a feature, not a bug, and that our industry — and every other industry — would collapse without them.”
The VCs for Kamala list highlights a deepening political divide in Silicon Valley and the broader tech industry. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been outspoken in supporting Trump, publicly endorsing him moments after the assassination attempt earlier this month, while VCs Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz recently said they are backing Trump, arguing his policies would be better for “little tech.”
Musk also reportedly plans to contribute millions to a pro-Trump political action committee, called America PAC, along with Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire and 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale. Musk’s close friend and former PayPal colleague David Sacks, co-founder at Craft Ventures, also vociferously supports Trump and spoke at the Republican National Convention earlier this month.
Hoffman, a longtime Democratic donor and partner at venture firm Greylock, shared a link to the pro-Harris pledge on X, the social media site owned by Musk.
“Proud to sign the #vcsforkamala pledge,” Hoffman wrote. “It’s an investment in our democratic future.”
Erika Lucas, General Partner at VEST Her Ventures, wrote on LinkedIn that there were “a lot of women, particularly Black Women VCs,” behind the pledge, adding “I’m proud to serve and organize with them as well [as] our male colleagues. We understand the assignment.”
The woman credited with starting VCs for Kamala is Leslie Feinzaig, founder of venture fund Graham & Walker and the Female Founders Alliance. She wrote on LinkedIn that investors who signed the pledge help oversee more than $150 billion in assets under management, and includes Democrats, moderates and independents.
“Silicon Valley power players that have lost touch with the rest of us, don’t speak for all of us,” she wrote.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago starting Aug. 19.
