Silicon Valley’s geek god is trying to become its political savior.
At a time when many tech titans are sniping at President Donald Trump from the comfort of social media, Reid Hoffman is taking a more direct tack by funding some of the organizations working to elect more Democrats around the country.
So far, the LinkedIn co-founder has spent millions of dollars on startups that seek to boost voter turnout. He has backed nonprofits that study the future of work and the best ways to improve civic discourse online. And he’s donated to a roster of candidates, mostly Democrats, who are seeking their states’ governorships and seats in the U.S. Congress. Hoffman also emerged as a key donor in Virginia, where Democrats surprisingly routed their Republican opponents in crucial statehouse races.
Those early successes could embolden Hoffman to donate even more aggressively come 2018, when the composition of the U.S. Congress is up for grabs. And that’s to say nothing about 2020, when Hoffman could lead the Valley’s efforts to unseat Trump — the very force that catalyzed his recent political activism in the first place.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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