Elias: Money one factor in the making of the next VP

An old saying tells us “no one votes for the vice president in a presidential election, just for the president.” But the quick ascension of Californian Kamala Harris to her party’s presidential nomination last summer demonstrates how vital the choice can be, a decision usually made solely by prospective presidential nominees.
So it was this year with both Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
It’s pretty clear that Walz calling Republican President-elect Donald Trump and his choice of Vance “weird” first propelled him into Harris’ consciousness. Previously, he was almost completely obscure on a national level. But Walz performed well as a prospect and other possibilities had more potential drawbacks. So he suddenly became nationally prominent, at least for awhile.
Things were apparently far more complex in Trump’s selection of Vance, best known previously for his 2016 autobiography, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
For several years after his book became a bestseller, Vance worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, an experience that developed into a large factor in his selection as Trump’s running mate. His access to billionaires in the San Francisco suburbs may have attracted Trump to him as much as anything else.
Vance did, after all, write on Facebook in 2016 that “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical (expletive) like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.” The quote did not become public until 2022, while he ran for the Senate.
Vance also declared Trump to be “reprehensible” and “an idiot.” Now he says those fairly recent views of his current boss are obsolete. For Vance, Trump has become the cat’s pajamas, now that he’s made Vance nationally prominent. It gives Vance the appearance of an opportunist.
There was apparently plenty of opportunism in Trump’s own choice, which included complete exoneration of Vance’s previous views of him. Before, Vance just didn’t understand, Trump told those who asked. Now he does. This may be a new form of what Chinese Communists call “reeducation.”
It turns out Trump’s choice may be a pretty good illustration of another old saying, “If you want to understand a story, follow the money.”
For plenty of Silicon Valley money followed the choice of Vance. At least $100 million in donations to the Trump campaign and maybe $200 million, both direct and indirect. For example, Peter Thiel, a major venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal, was no Trump enthusiast until after the new president-elect chose Vance, a Thiel protégé. Thiel and pals like fellow venture capitalist Marc Andreesen kicked in tens of millions and raised even more from others, the precise amount yet to be fully reported. 
Vance has also worked with technology billionaire David Sacks in the Bay Area. Sacks sat beside Trump last summer at a $300,000 per person fundraising dinner on San Francisco’s Nob Hill, where Trump informally polled the room on his choice for veep. Some of those present also helped persuade billionaire Tesla and X owner Elon Musk to become a Trump activist; he eventually kicked in more than $75 million.
At the same time, sources say, many venture capitalists view Vance as a potential barrier to revival of a tax plan proposed by Harris and President Biden which aimed to impose a 25% levy on unrealized capital gains valued at over $100 million. This plan could cost some venture capitalists billions.
The high-tech Republican-leaning billionaires also are reported to view Vance as their shield against tough regulation of artificial intelligence; (they and their Democratic cohorts) also successfully lobbied Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a state bill that would have imposed the world’s first regulations on AI. And some see Vance as helping them fend off heavy taxation of cryptocurrency profits.
All of which means there has rarely been a more obvious case where following the money helps explain a major political decision. The plain reality is that if Vance had not spent several years in Northern California, he almost certainly would never have graced this year’s Republican ticket.
It’s a much more complex story than what happened among Democrats, even if Walz was even more obscure than Vance before last summer.
Email Thomas Elias at [email protected].