Why All the Biggest California Tech Worker Counties Voted For Bernie Sanders

Because even though workers in Silicon Valley receive compensation that would be considered extraordinary elsewhere, they are middle class in the Bay Area and worry about housing, health care and education. Not that many people feel especially sorry for them these days. JL


Cat Zakrzewski reports in the Washington Post:

He either won or had a lead in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Alameda counties.There’s a growing divide between tech executives and rank-and-file employees. Many tech workers, even at major companies known for lofty salaries, are feeling financial stress and finding that Sanders’s policies resonate with them. “Because being part of the anxious middle class in Silicon Valley is you can be making $100,000 or $150,000 and still be anxious given the costs of housing, the cost of education and costs of health care in our area.”

The tech industry’s most prominent leaders don’t want Bernie Sanders in the White House. But early Super Tuesday election tallies show their neighbors feel differently. 

The Vermont senator’s lead as of this morning in the California primary was bolstered by many Bay Area counties that are home to major tech companies and tech workers. He either won or had a lead in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Alameda counties, according to The Washington Post’s election tracker this morning. 

It now seems likely that employees at some of the major companies Sanders has attacked on the campaign trail are contributing to his success. There’s a growing divide between tech executives and rank-and-file employees who support the self-described Democratic socialist, said Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley and serves as Sanders’s campaign co-chair. 

“Look, most of the executives do not want Bernie Sanders,” Khanna told me in a recent interview. “But what surprised me is that there are hundreds of employees at Google, at Apple and at Facebook who are Bernie's supporters.”

It may seem counterintuitive that Sanders’s crusade against billionaires and corporate power would resonate so strongly in the cradle of some of the world’s most powerful companies. But skyrocketing costs of living in the region are hitting all Bay Area residents. 

Khanna said many tech workers — even at major companies known for lofty salaries — are feeling financial stress and finding that Sanders’s policies resonate with them. “They're part of an anxious middle class,” Khanna said. “Because being part of the anxious middle class in Silicon Valley is you can be making $100,000 or $150,000, as hard as it is to believe, and still be very anxious given the costs of housing, the cost of education and costs of health care in our area.” 

“I think that what appeals to them [about Sanders] is they have health care bills, and they have kids who want to go to college,” Khanna added. “They recognize the rising cost of housing.” 

Sanders has been trying to speak directly to those anxieties on the campaign trail — even the local housing crisis. Last year, he criticized Apple after it pledged $2.5 billion to address the California housing crisis. He argued that the company helped create the crisis while raking in taxpayer subsidies and for not paying enough in taxes. 

The senator has also campaigned on Medicare-for-all, a single-payer, national health insurance program that would expand health care coverage to all Americans. He supports providing free college, as well as wiping out  $1.6 trillion in existing student loan debt. 

There’s data that shows these policies are popular among tech industry workers. Sanders received the most in donations, from the highest number of individuals of any presidential candidate among employees of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber, Tesla and SpaceX, Oracle and Microsoft, according to a recent analysis of recent Federal Election Commission filings by The Guardian’s Julia Carrie Wong. 

But despite that support, he’s no friend of Big Tech. A Sanders presidency would almost certainly result in greater antitrust scrutiny of the tech giants. He said at a Washington Post Live event last year that a Sanders administration would “absolutely” have a Justice Department that would seek to break up Facebook, Google and Amazon. 

And his tax plans — especially his recent proposal to increase taxes on some start-up employees — have Silicon Valley venture capitalists worried. 

Of course, Sanders’s lead in California was largely overshadowed by former vice president Joe Biden’s sweep of the South, as he threatens to outpace Sanders among delegates. Biden’s next test in Silicon Valley will be whether he’s able to win over some of the tech executives and investors who had previously supported other moderate Democratic candidates