Tech Industry Still Firmly Behind Clinton Despite DNC Chaos

CINCINNATI, OH - Democratic Presumptive Nominee for President former Secretary of State Hi
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Despite chaos at the Democratic National Convention, Silicon Valley has reaffirmed their support for a candidate who seemingly has a big problem with handling technology — especially emails.

Despite high-profile failures of information security including the email server scandal and the embarrassing DNC leaks, Silicon Valley has reaffirmed their support for the soon-to-be Democratic nominee.

Dilawar Syed, the president at Freshdeck, a cloud-based customer service software, praised Hillary Clinton for her support of STEM education and increased diversity in Silicon Valley. “Training 50,000 teachers to teach computer science is an example of the kind of progressive policy Hillary has put forth to ensure we develop talent for a 21st Century economy,” Syed said.

According to USA Today, Clinton has received sizable campaign contributions from some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent leaders. 

She’s collected about $3 million in contributions from Facebook Chief Operating OfficerSheryl Sandberg, venture capitalist Chris Sacca and Elon Musk, the visionary behindTesla Motors, SpaceX, SolarCity and Hyperloop One, according to Crowdpac, a nonpartisan political crowdfunding web site. VC legend John Doerrcontributed $500,000 to Clinton’s Super PAC.

In addition to the leader of Silicon Valley firms pledging their allegiance to Clinton, the vast majority of tech industry employees have committed funds to her bid for the White House. In fact, according to Crowdpac, which measures campaign contributions, of the 35,234 tech industry members analyzed in the study, only 52 donors have contributed to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

In June, I reported more extensively about Hillary Clinton’s interesting relationship with Silicon Valley:

Prominent members of the industry have publicly announced their support of former Sec. Clinton and her tech plan. “No doubt, lots of good stuff included in Secretary Clinton’s tech agenda,” says Bobby Franklin, CEO of National Venture Capital Association.  “If the details are as good as the blueprint, we would be very supportive of this type of agenda in a Hillary Clinton Administration.”

“What she has proposed is ambitious and may not be approved right away, but it sets a good starting point,” says Anis Uzzaman, CEO of Fenox Venture Capital in San Jose, Calif.

Box CEO Aaron Levie, a Clinton supporter, also heaped praised on the former Secretary and her tech plan. “She did a great job of articulating and underscoring” issues affecting talent, patents, content, encryption, and privacy, he says.

Despite previous concerns about Secretary Clinton’s ethical conduct, some tech industry leaders claim that she is the perfect person to advocate for digital ethics. “It would be good for a presidential candidate to advocate a digital ethics and rights bill that would protect citizens and set the rules so that the valley would have clear guidelines on data ownership and usage,” argued R. Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research.

Secretary Clinton’s detractors are concerned that the tech plan is her way of returning the favor to her donors in the tech industry. This would be consistent with the theory proposed in Breitbart Senior Editor Peter Schweizer’s New York Times bestselling book, Clinton Cash, which through thorough research suggests the Clintons often grant political favors to their biggest donors.

Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity for Breitbart. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com

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