Dustin Moskovitz might not be as famous as his fellow Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, but he made a big splash Thursday night when he committed $20 million to Hillary Clinton and other Democratic groups in a bid to defeat Donald Trump and other Republicans in the November elections.
The donation to pro-Democrat and pro-Clinton groups will add to an already wide fundraising lead Clinton holds over Trump. Counting both the campaign committee and outside groups, the Clinton effort has raised over $435 million so far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, compared to $160 million for Donald Trump.
Moscovitz’s $20 million pledge would make him the third biggest donor in the 2016 election cycle, CNN reports.
https://twitter.com/moskov/status/774095121562279936
Announced on Twitter and in an article published on Medium—titled “Compelled to Act“—Moskovitz said that he and his wife Cari Tuna (who, with Moscovitz, runs the Good Ventures philanthropic foundation) had decided to act because the current election cycle was notably different from previous ones in that it has “yielded a race that is about much more than policies and ideas” and was a “referendum on who we want to be.”
Moscovitz and Tuna wrote:
Will we be driven by fear, towards tribalism, emphasizing the things that divide us? Will we focus on how to advantage those most similar to us while building barriers to separate us from the rest of the world? Or, alternatively, will we continue in the direction of increased tolerance, diversity and interdependence in the name of mutual prosperity?
Moscovitz, who has a net worth of some $10.5 billion according to Forbes, said the $20 million commitment would include $5 million for the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Victory Fund, an environmental group; $5 million for the For Our Future PAC, a pro-Democrat group formed by billionaire environmentalist and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and four labor groups; and $10 million to be split between the Hillary Victory Fund, the DSCC, the DCCC, MoveOn.org Political Action, Color Of Change PAC, and several other groups.
See also: Donald Trump’s Record Month of Fundraising Is Still Less than Clinton’s
Moscovitz and Tuna painted the pledge as much pro-Clinton as anti-Trump, distinguishing they from many other Democrats who’ve supported Clinton largely as a way to stop a Trump presidency. The couple explained their view of the two parties:
The Republican Party, and Donald Trump in particular, is running on a zero-sum vision, stressing a false contest between their constituency and the rest of the world. We believe their positions, especially on immigration, which purport to improve the lives of Americans, would in practice hurt citizens and non-citizens alike.
They add:
In contrast, the Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton in particular, is running on a vision of optimism, pragmatism, inclusiveness and mutual benefit.
When the donations are made, Moscovitz and Tuna will become the tech industry’s biggest players in the 2016 elections. Oracle (ORCL) founder Larry Ellison and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel have supported Republicans to the tune of some $5 million and $2 million respectively, while Salesforce (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff, Napster founder Sean Parker, and LinkedIn (LNKD) founder Reid Hoffman went the other way.
