When Sam Bankman-Fried was asked during a podcast earlier this year how much money he might give to political candidates over upcoming election cycles, he offered an eye-popping ballpark number. The 30-year-old crypto titan guessed that, at a minimum, he would put down “north of $100 million,” enough cash to make him one of the country’s most important donors. Pressed by the host on whether he might even spend up to $1 billion, he answered, “Yeah, I think that’s a decent thing to look at,” adding that the number was “a sort of soft ceiling” on his potential largesse.
Even if that $1 billion figure sounded outlandishly unrealistic, the comments still seemed to promise a huge tailwind for largely Democratic candidates. After all, Bankman-Fried, who founded the global crypto exchange FTX and is currently worth about $15 billion according to Bloomberg, was one of Joe Biden’s top financial backers in 2020.
And though he did not pledge to fund Democrats exclusively, he said his top causes included pandemic preparedness and “sane governance,” issues where Republicans notably tend to be weak. (Pandemic preparedness is a major area of focus for the philanthropic movement known as effective altruism, which counts Bankman-Fried as its most important financial backer). Bankman-Fried got off to a hot start giving during primary season, too; his Protect Our Future PAC laid out $40 million, largely in Democratic races, making it one of the party’s biggest individual campaign players.
But now, as the general election nears, Democrats are starting to look like the victims of a political rug pull.
(vid link)" / Twitter - with her statement on her loss. She seemed close to tears as she thanked her supporters and said that her activism is bigger than any one person and any one candidacy.
Public healthcare keeps people from turning to God
