As Kamala Harris rises to the top of the Democratic Party ticket she is gathering her share of big backers and donors. In particular, there will be a collective of Silicon Valley names with huge bank accounts and network assets for the offering. Harris hails from the Oakland, California region, in the shadow of Big Tech offices, and over the years she has cultivated numerous friendships with these titans.
One name Harris has become close to is Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Powell Jobs is worth a fortune and is regarded as one of the bigger names in technology while maintaining a mostly private profile. But she is not an unknown entity. Through her investments, charitable works, and various organizations Powell Jobs is a fixture throughout many industries as well as being well-connected to politics, particularly with Democrats. Many of her ventures are geared towards her pet social causes, and this is where things become interesting regarding Kamala Harris.
The Big Backer
The Harris and Jobs relationship dates back to more than a decade ago when Harris was the District Attorney of San Francisco and then became Attorney General of California. Her statewide campaigns have relied upon massive cash infusions from Silicon Valley names and during her reelection bid Jobs hosted a fundraiser for Harris at her home in 2013. Theirs is a lengthy and established relationship.
During the 2020 campaign, Jobs threw in behind Harris, along with a high degree of others from their sector but there was a bit of a surprise for the then-Senator as several names in the tech sector sided with Pete Buttigieg, who siphoned off a significant amount of donations. As Harris stalled out ahead of the primary she pulled out of the race, but she was still looked at as potential.
When Joe Biden was deciding on a running mate he formed his Vice Presidential selection committee, and there was one telling selection on that team. Amid campaign veterans, there was one name chosen who was not from the political realm. Cynthia Hogan joined that squad, who was a lobbyist – for Apple. This goes far to explain why Harris made the cut for Biden’s choice, as she was assured of bringing with her a significant amount of Silicon Valley donations.
Fast forward to the present day, and with the demise of Joe Biden’s condition and the elevation of Harris onto the ballot by Democratic Party fiat, Powell Jobs now has a direct conduit into the White House as her prospect. Her level of support for Harris is sure to increase and through a pair of activist organizations, she has a unique position to promote Harris. The manner on how this operates at the very least nudges up against ethical lines, if not crosses them with a leap.
The Media Madam
When it comes to supporting Harris for this election run, Powell Jobs has many tools at her disposal that lend a media advantage, starting with the fact that she is the publisher of The Atlantic. This would be the outlet that delivered the fraudulent yet widely-cited news item in 2020 that claimed Donald Trump called dead WW2 soldiers “suckers and losers,” based on anonymous sourcing. It is not tough to see how that outlet would lean Kamala’s way.
But this is hardly the only media influence Powell Jobs could leverage. Through two organizational entities, she has tendrils spread out across the media environment, in both mainstream outlets, local news, and as we will show, even in the realm of astroturfed propaganda sites. This is a veiled sector of the Jobs umbrella activities and one that can wield some significant influence.
The first outfit to look at is how Jobs is the force behind a curious entity known as The Emerson Collective. While positioned as a philanthropic venture this is not a non-profit organization. The Emerson Collective is set up not as a charitable foundation but it is an operational LLC.
Started more than a decade ago, Emerson Collective may be the strangest entity in Silicon Valley: part charitable foundation, part venture capital firm, operating in near-total secrecy, despite being run by one of the most famous women in business.
This particular setup allows for advantages and flexibility not afforded normally to groups such as hers. For one it avoids the scrutiny and transparency that exists with your normal non-profits. Secondly, as an LLC, Emerson can use its funding as an investment strategy. It has bought into companies such as Pinterest, which subsequently went public, and the podcast company Gimlet Media, which it sold for a profit to Spotify. This way Emerson can at times be a charity or an investment firm. It could also provide some convenient tax benefits; if, for instance, an investment does not deliver it might be reclassified as a deductible donation.
The most notable move Powell Jobs made with her outfit was purchasing The Atlantic but there are numerous other media outlets her venture has benefitted. Emerson was an early investor of Axios, before its sale to Cox Enterprises two years ago and Jobs is in good graces with Axios founder Jim VandeHei. The connections to the White House and Axios had previously been established with Clinton and Obama official Evan Ryan, who previously worked under Biden, and was brought in as Axios executive VP in 2017. She later left to join the Biden campaign and currently serves as his cabinet secretary, as well as being Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s wife.
Powell Jobs has had a focus on using her influence in the media ecosystem and she brought in former New York Times business editor Peter Lattman to serve as managing director of media. Along with the acquisition of The Atlantic, Lattman has overseen the outreach and financial support of numerous news outlets. In 2020 Jobs and Emerson financially backed NowThis, a millennial-targeted media outlet. Other outlets benefitting from Emerson have been Mother Jones, ProPublica, and The Marshall Project.
Jobs and her organization have even looked beyond the national outlets. In her effort to support the erosion in local news, the Emerson Collective has become a primary supporter of The American Journalism Project. This is an organization designed to target local news outlets in need of support to maintain independent and non-profit news organizations. Even while it might be claimed there is no editorial influence, just by the very nature of the type of outlets tabbed for financial support you can get a partisan result. (One such outlet receiving Emerson largesse had been The Texas Observer, a now-shuttered small paper regarded by most as a liberal news outlet.)
This extensive media reach is something that can certainly benefit Kamala Harris, and benefitting her seems in the interest of The Emerson collective. In a lengthy profile of Laurene Powell Jobs by The Washington Post, they described the mission:
It has given $2.6 million at the federal level since 2013, primarily to Emerge America, dedicated to recruiting Democratic women candidates, and to Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC. Powell Jobs herself is a registered independent and has made about $4 million in federal campaign contributions since 1997, mainly to Democratic candidates and organizations in line with issues of concern to Emerson.
This is the backer of Harris, with a serious amount of media outlets at her disposal. As we said, this is one arm of media influence. The next is a more overt effort to manufacture news and propaganda for the Democrats, and by default for Kamala Harris.
[In the second part we will look into the other arm of potential support for Kamala Harris in the form of Laurene Powell Job lending support for a manufactured news network.]
