For his part, Kousser, of the University of California San Diego, says that tech donors haven’t necessarily harmed the campaigns of the candidates they’ve contributed to. But they evidently have, he says, “failed to elevate them above their other vulnerabilities as candidates.”
The future of Big Tech in politics
Despite the losses of tech-backed candidates in some high-profile races in California’s primaries, Kousser stresses that tech figures play, and will continue to play, an integral role in all aspects of the state’s politics, specifically when it comes to those surrounding AI and data center regulation.
He points to the ways that Big Tech has become involved in the political systems that shape such regulations and other policies impacting the industry, including the millions of dollars tech firms spend on lobbying Congress and seeking to influence policy on the state level.
A report from the nonprofit Issue One, which seeks to limit the role that money plays in politics, found that based on federal lobbying reports Big Tech companies spent roughly $20 million on congressional lobbying in the first three months of this year, amounting to $226,000 per day. In California, meanwhile, a CalMatters analysis found that major companies specializing in AI and crypto spent more than $39 million in their efforts to influence state politics last year, including campaign contributions, lobbying, and donations made at the requests of lawmakers.
