VC vet Horowitz supported Trump, now backs Harris: Report

Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, who previously supported former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, now plans to make a “significant” donation to Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

Axios first learned about the trend a few months after Horowitz and his business partner, Marc Andreessen, made the case in a YouTube video that Trump was the best bet for the tech industry, particularly cryptocurrency.

At the time, President Joe Biden was still running for re-election.

“It was tough,” Andreessen said in July. “This was a brutal attack on a nascent industry… I have never experienced it before… It was impossible to make progress on this with the White House.”

In his conversation with Andreesen, Horowitz made the false claim that the Biden administration was “subverting the rule of law to attack the crypto industry.”

“I mean, that’s what we’re dealing with right now, and it’s probably the most emotional issue,” he said on Nov. 5, without addressing any other issues at stake.

Horowitz’s mind changed when Harris entered the race in late July.

In an email to Andreesen Horowitz employees on Friday, Horowitz shared that he and his wife, Felicia, have known Harris for more than a decade and have developed a friendship.

In fact, in the “early days” of the firm, he helped with some events at the Harris home.

Horowitz said he had encouraging conversations with the Democratic candidate about technology policies.

“From a robust perspective, we continue to take positions that are only consistent with our Small Tech Agenda and how various candidates may or may not support policies to build a strong startup tech industry,” Horowitz said.

Horowitz jumped at the opportunity to throw shade at the Biden administration, calling its technology policies “extraordinarily disruptive,” especially in areas like crypto, blockchain and artificial intelligence. So while we hope that Harris’ presidency will bring new life, it remains to be seen whether she will enter the tech world.

Other venture capitalists have also announced their support for Harris, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, OpenAI investor Ron Conway, and Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban.

Billionaire Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire and the Winklevoss twins remain ardent supporters of Trump.