Democrats Accept More Money than Republicans from Big Tech Companies

OpEds Posted On February 12, 2020

According to the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) website, based on the FEC data from November 21st, 2019, Big Tech companies and their political action committees (PACs) have given more than $6.7 million ($6,787,553) to Congressional and Presidential candidates.

In total, Democrats have accepted $4.6 million ($4,658,563) from Big Tech while Republicans have accepted $1.6 million ($1,600,055). Independents have accepted $528,935 from Big Tech. But if you don’t factor Bernie Sanders into the equation, the total is just $2,522 for independents.

Based on the money totals, Democrats have accepted 68.63% from Big Tech while Republicans have accepted 23.57%. Independents have accepted 7.79% but without Bernie Sanders, Independents have only accepted 0.04% from Big Tech.

There are 640 Congressional and Presidential candidates who have accepted money from Big Tech companies including 429 Democrats (67.03%), 206 Republicans (32.19%) and five Independents (0.78%).

Of those candidates, 498 have accepted at least $1,000 including 303 Democrats (60.84%), 193 Republicans (38.76%) and two Independents (0.40%).

The number of candidates accepting $10,000 or more is 149 including 100 Democrats (67.11%), 48 Republicans (32.21%) and one Independent (0.67%) named Bernie Sanders.

Alphabet has given more than $1.7 million ($1,781,310), Amazon.com has given more than $1.3 million ($1,339,377) and Microsoft Corp has given more than $1.1 million ($1,151,117). Apple ($552,004) and Facebook ($520,577) have given more than half a million dollars while Twitter has given a little over $75,000 ($75,668).

Democrats have accepted at least 76% or more of the money given to all Congressional and Presidential candidates from each Big Tech company except for Microsoft Corp (74.81%) and Amazon.com (64.32%).

To the Democratic Party candidates: Alphabet has given $1,358,621 (76.27%), Microsoft Corp $861,153 (74.81%), Amazon.com $861,433 (64.32%), Apple $448,037 (81.17%), Facebook $413,053 (79.35%), and Twitter $72,266 (95.50%).

Democrats would have a virtual monopoly if the entire United States’ government were based on a two-thirds majority by these Big Tech companies mentioned in this story (and as you continue to read this story). And that is something the Republican Party needs to wake up to the reality of as fast as possible because Big Tech is becoming more and more part of the U.S. government and is effectively infringing on and forever eliminating United States’ citizens right to privacy. The sad part is very few people seem to care about that.

The highest percentage Republicans have accepted from any of the Big Tech companies is 25.60% from Amazon.com. Republicans have accepted less than 16 percent from all of the other Big Tech companies.

To the Republican Party candidates: Amazon.com has given $342,863 (25.60%), Alphabet $257,997 (14.48%), Microsoft Corp $180,545 (15.68%), Facebook $80,150 (15.40%), Apple $15,000 (2.72%) and zero dollars from Twitter.

Most of the money Big Tech gives away to Independents is going to Bernie Sanders. To the Independent candidates Alphabet has given $164,692 (9.25%), Amazon.com $135,081 (10.09%), Microsoft Corp $109,419 (9.51%), Apple $88,967 (16.12%), Facebook $27,374 (5.26%), and Twitter $3,402 (4.50%).

Alphabet has given $1,070 dollars to Independents who aren’t named Bernie Sanders. All of the other Big Tech companies have given $750 dollars or less.

If Bernie Sanders were a Democrat, Twitter and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would have given 100% of their money to Democrats.

CAIR lobbied Twitter to permanently ban investigative journalist Laura Loomer and effectively denied her U.S. Constitutional First Amendment rights to free speech on the Internet.

However, the Republicans have a slight advantage when it comes to receiving money from Big Tech Political Action Committees (PACs).

There are 349 candidates who have accepted money from Big Tech company PACs including 186 Republicans (53.30%), 163 Democrats (46.70%) and zero Independents.

But when looking at the money totals, Republicans have accepted $723,500 (52.91%) from Big Tech PACs while Democrats have accepted $644,000 (47.09%).

As for the political action committees (PACs), Amazon.com has given $588,500 Google has given $398,500, Microsoft Corp has given $273,000 and Facebook has given $107,500.

Republicans have accepted at least 51% of the total money from each of those four Big Tech PACs while Democrats have accepted at least 46% from each of those PACs. Again, Independents have accepted no money from Big Tech PACs.

To the Republican Party candidates the Amazon.com PAC has given $311,000 (52.85%), the Google Inc PAC $214,500 (53.83%), the Microsoft Corp PAC $142,500 (52.20%), and the Facebook PAC $55,500 (51.63%).

As for the Democratic Party, the Amazon.com PAC has given $277,500 (47.15%), the Google Inc PAC $184,000 (46.17%), the Microsoft Corp PAC $130,500 (47.80%), and the Facebook PAC $52,000 (48.37%).

Democratic Party presidential candidates clearly lead the field in terms of receiving money from Big Tech. There are 17 current or former presidential candidates on the Democratic Party side (in the 2020 presidential election cycle) who have accepted at least $10,000 from Big Tech. The combined total of those 17 candidates is $2.61 million ($2,613,106) which is 38.50 percent of the $6.7 million dollars that Big Tech has given to Congressional and Presidential candidates.

Bernie Sanders has raised $526,413. That is the most out of any Congressional or Presidential candidate. In fact, he has raised so much money that it is at a minimum of more than 1/13th of all of the money Big Tech companies have given to Presidential and Congressional candidates mentioned in this story.

Sanders has accepted $163,622 from Alphabet Inc., $135,076 from Amazon.com, $108,669 from Microsoft Corp, $88,340 from Apple, $27,304 from Facebook and $3,402 from Twitter.

He has accepted the most money from Amazon.com, Apple and Microsoft Corp.

Elizabeth Warren has accepted $462,942. That is the second most out of any candidate.

She has accepted $200,546 from Alphabet, $79,418 from Amazon.com, $72,895 from Microsoft Corp, $68,711 from Apple, $28,880 from Facebook and $12,492 from Twitter.

Warren has accepted more money than Sanders from Alphabet, Facebook and Twitter. She has accepted a little less than $37,000 more than Sanders from Alphabet and a little more than $9,000 greater than Sanders has from Twitter.

She has received the most money from Alphabet.

Pete Buttigieg has accepted $449,420. That is the third highest total.

He has accepted $175,290 from Alphabet, $86,808 from Microsoft Corp, $69,654 from Amazon.com, $61,034 from Apple, $51,158 from Facebook and $5,476 from Twitter.

Buttigieg has accepted more money from Alphabet than Sanders, more money from Microsoft Corp than Warren, more money than Sanders and Warren from Facebook and more money than Sanders from Twitter.

He has received the most money from Facebook.

Previous Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris has accepted $325,055 from Big Tech.

She has accepted $122,813 from Alphabet, $59,548 from Apple, $49,395 from Microsoft Corp, $45,781 from Amazon.com, $34,396 from Facebook and $13,122 from Twitter.

Love her or hate her, you have to wonder whether she will be seeking the vice presidency at this point and try again for the presidency in the future.

Harris has accepted the most money from Twitter. She also has accepted more money from Facebook than Sanders and Warren.

Andrew Yang has accepted $176,124 from Big Tech. He has accepted $60,589 from Alphabet, $44,574 from Amazon.com, $31,293 from Microsoft Corp, $21,142 from Facebook, $16,293 from Apple and $2,233 from Twitter.

Joe Biden ($136,347) and Cory Booker ($105,442) have also accepted more than $100,000.

Tulsi Gabbard has received $53,385, Amy Klobuchar has received $27,172, Michael Bennet has received $13,164, Tom Steyer has received $9,075, and John Delaney has received $942.

Former Democratic Party presidential candidates Jay Inslee ($133,145) and Beto O’Rourke ($103,896) also received more than $100,000.

Other former Democratic Party presidential candidates who have accepted the following from Big Tech are: Kirsten Gillibrand ($30,208), Steve Bullock ($22,472), Julian Castro ($20,902), John Hickenlooper ($14,843), Eric Swalwell ($12,176), Tim Ryan ($7,064), Marianne Williamson ($7,014), Seth Moulton ($3,131), Mike Gravel ($2,793), Wayne Messam ($452), Bill de Blasio ($55). Joe Sestak accepted no money from Big Tech as far as I can tell.

Compared to a previous story on my website, Sanders has raised $417,744 from Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Facebook and Twitter. From the October 16th FEC data, Sanders had $416,167. Warren has accepted $390,047. She previously had $385,774. Buttigieg has accepted $362,612. He previously had $358,006. Harris has raised $275,660. She previously had $269,870. Andrew Yang has accepted $144,831. He previously had $144,731.

But it’s not just Democratic Party presidential candidates who have accepted large amounts of money from Big Tech.

The following Congressional candidates (all Democrats except for Kevin McCarthy) have all accepted more than $50,000: Mark Warner (D-VA) $77,931, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) $70,420, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) $69,800, Gary Peters (D-MI) $64,338, Kim Schrier (D-WA) $52,831, and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) $50,125.

Yes, that is only six Congressional candidates but that doesn’t include the other 126 Congressional or Presidential candidates who have accepted between $10,000 and $49,999 from Big Tech.

President Donald John Trump has accepted $27,363 from Big Tech.

*This article was written by broadcast journalist, Evan Troxel and originally published on his site. To read more by Troxel or for the original article, please read here.