Apple employees show they lean to the left in the clearest way possible: with their wallets. Election contributions by Apple employees inclined strongly toward Democrats in the 2020 presidential race.
It’s not even close. Apple employee contributions to Joe Biden’s campaign were more than 13 times greater than they were to President Donald Trump’s, for example.
Election contributions by Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft
Data compiled by OpenSecrets.org shows that 94.7% of Apple employees’ contributions to all federal elections this cycle went to Democrats, while 5.7% went to Republicans. In just the presidential race, it’s 92.8% for Biden and 7.2% for Trump ($529,244 and $38,352, respectively).
Fans of Trump considering dumping their iPhone because of these figures probably won’t be happy to discover that the situation isn’t any different for Alphabet, the parent company of Android developer Google. OpenSecrets.org indicates that all political contributions to federal elections by Alphabet employees this cycle went 91.6% to Democrats and 8.4% to Republicans.
And Alphabet employees contribute much more in total. In the presidential race, they gave $1,696,122 to Biden’s campaign, more than triple what Apple employees contributed.
Election contributions by Microsoft employees show a lean toward blue as well, if not as strongly. Employees of the Windows developer gave 83.9% to Democrats versus 16.1% to Republicans in all federal elections in the 2020 cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Apple and Alphabet might lean a different direction
Neither Apple, Alphabet nor Microsoft gave as much as a penny to any election campaign. The contributions listed come entirely from their respective employees.
And the companies themselves might have different leanings. The Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary antitrust subcommittee released a report on Tuesday very critical of Apple and Alphabet as well as Amazon and Facebook.
In addition to negative assessments of the other three companies, the report includes the accusation that, “Apple’s monopoly power over software distribution to iOS devices has resulted in harms to competitors and competition, reducing quality and innovation among app developers, and increasing prices and reducing choices for consumers.”
In contrast, Republicans in the committee are on record as not agreeing with the Democrats’ approach to dealing with the tech giants.
Via: Wired
