| | | | |  | | By Lara Korte, Melanie Mason and Dustin Gardiner | |  Venture capitalist David Sacks, speaks during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday. | Andrew Caballero-Reyolds/AFP via Getty Images | THE BUZZ — It's not a Republican party gathering without a designated California-basher. On night one of the GOP convention in Milwaukee, it was venture capitalist David Sacks taking center stage to roast his home state. "In my hometown of San Francisco, Democrat rule has turned the streets of our beautiful city into a cesspool of open encampments and open drug use," he said. Sacks' appearance at the RNC underpins a powerful narrative in the Trump world: one where wealthy actors in California's liberal bastions are so frustrated by Democrats in government that they're willing to break away from the pack and back a rebellion. The tech investor is stepping into a role cast years ago by his longtime colleague Peter Thiel, another Silicon Valley defector, whose 2016 RNC speech marked a defining moment for the Trump campaign. Thiel's support later extended to Republicans including J.D. Vance, Trump's vice presidential pick. Thiel was Vance’s biggest donor in the Ohio Senate race, funneling $10 million toward his 2022 campaign. Vance — who lived in San Francisco for a few years, working as a venture capitalist — has spent a good deal of time in Silicon Valley encouraging tech leaders to back Trump. He was also at a San Francisco fundraiser last month for Trump hosted by Sacks and fellow political tech disruptor Chamath Palihapitiya. Vance and Sacks are emblematic of Silicon venture capitalists and CEOs who feel increasingly emboldened to embrace Trump. Monday night, shortly before Trump took the stage, news broke that Musk would contribute $45 million a month to a pro-Trump PAC also backed by tech titans like the Winklevoss twins. Despite his notoriety among SF elite, Sacks’ remarks on Monday night were met with a tepid response, at best. Many attendees talked over his speech, and several of his applause lines fell largely flat. Instead of discussing technology policy, his area of expertise, the Elon Musk confidant spent much of his brief speech attacking President Joe Biden for his support of Ukraine — an issue that deeply divides Republicans. Sacks’ rhetoric has made him a de facto convener for Trump-aligned techies in the Bay Area. Harmeet Dhillon, a California member of the RNC who was basking in the VP news on the convention floor Monday afternoon, told Playbook that just a few weeks ago she had told Vance he was her preferred veep. Their meeting spot? The Trump fundraiser held at Sacks’ home. “I was just talking to my San Francisco GOP chair, and he told me his phone is ringing off the hook from ‘crypto bros,’” Dhillon said. “They want to be in on the action here. They realize it's an existential threat to their worldview and pocketbooks and wallets if Joe Biden and his ilk stay in power.” Make no mistake — Silicon Valley remains a lucrative place for Democratic fundraising. But some Republicans argue that the Biden administration has disillusioned parts of Silicon Valley with what they view as a hostile approach to business. “If you look at the second-tier appointments inside the administration, it’s littered with people who are favored by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren — and these are people who fundamentally are just not pro business,” said Bill Whalen, a distinguished policy fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Sacks has, like Musk, adeptly used social media and podcasts to express pro-Trump views and reach a like-minded audience. Sacks co-hosts the “All In” podcast alongside fellow Silicon Valley players Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg, where the four discuss tech and political topics du jour. Many of Sacks’ priorities align more closely with your typical business-minded Republican on taxes and regulation, especially when it comes to burgeoning new technologies like cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. But the venture capitalist has long been critical of U.S. support for Ukraine and often slams America’s “Forever Wars,” referencing the years of conflict in the Middle East following September 11. Trump is "a president who understands that you build the most powerful military in the world to keep America safe," Sacks said. "Not to play the world's policeman." — with help from Brendan Bordelon GOOD MORNING. Happy Tuesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte. WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced. | | | | Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more. | | | | | |  | STATE CAPITOL | | | | 
Gavin Newsom has pulled San Diego's funding as part of a broader effort to get tougher on how cities and counties spend homelessness funds. | Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: PULLING BACK — Gov. Gavin Newsom is clawing back $10 million California sent San Diego to build tiny homes, arguing county officials haven't moved with the urgency that the homelessness and housing crisis demands. As our colleague Jeremy B. White reports today, it’s another example of the governor using his tough-on-locals housing tactic. Most of the money, previously earmarked to build 150 tiny homes, will now go to San Jose instead.
| | | TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES | | | |  The Chamber of Progress, which represents some of tech’s biggest names like Amazon, Apple and Meta, is taking aim at proposals that seek to curb the harmful effects of social media on kids. | AP | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: SOCIAL MEDIA PUSHBACK — A marquee tech group is imploring Newsom to veto two bills related to kids and social media, arguing in a letter today that the bills are “constitutionally flawed” and should face additional scrutiny after recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court. The Chamber of Progress, which represents some of tech’s biggest names like Amazon, Apple and Meta, is taking aim at Senate Bill 976 by state Sen. Nancy Skinner and Assembly Bill 3172 by Josh Lowenthal, two proposals that aim to curb the harmful effects of social media on kids — and have been sailing through the Legislature. The Supreme Court recently sided with tech groups in two prominent cases, giving social media companies broad First Amendment protections for how they design and moderate systems and content. Skinner’s bill would bar social media companies from sending an addictive social media feed to a minor without parental consent — a key feature of many apps that California officials like Attorney General Rob Bontahave decried as harmful. The default for kids, under Skinner’s proposal, would be a sequential feed, based on what the young person liked or searched. The chamber argues that such requirements burden platforms’ First Amendment right to choose how they organize content, and that the law would actually prevent companies from curating a social media feed that downranks harmful content, undercutting the proposal’s intent. “Personalized feeds are essential for platforms to protect users from toxic content, like posts that promote self-harm, eating disorders, and suicide,” writes Todd O’Boyle, senior director for technology policy at Chamber of Progress. Lowenthal’s bill increases the penalties that certain prosecutors can seek when social media platforms cause harm to a child by failing to take ordinary care — with maximum damages of $1 million per child harmed. The chamber argues that platforms would be so fearful of litigation that it would result in “excessive moderation.” The group also argues that the high court has affirmed First Amendment protections for design decisions. Lowenthal, in an interview, said the chamber’s letter to the governor this early in the session is the “ultimate sign of flattery,” given that the bill has received bipartisan support. The lawmaker, who spent 25 years working in the tech sector, said social media companies should be held liable for harm like any other toy or product. “It’s about time they’re held accountable just like every other consumer product is,” he said. COUNTER PROGRAMMING — Another tech industry group, TechNet, is launching a new phase of its campaign to show Americans the positive uses of artificial intelligence, an effort dubbed “AI for America.” Today the organization launched the first of a series of videos that features an executive from Intuit highlighting how small businesses can use AI. The campaign underscores the negative perceptions around AI that tech groups are trying to overcome as states around the country introduce legislation to rein in the fast-moving technology. In California, lawmakers this year proposed more than two dozen bills on artificial intelligence. “Rather than believe the sort of scary, 'Terminator' kind of stories,” said Linda Moore, president and CEO of TechNet, “We're saying no, AI is being used every day to help people make their lives easier.”
| | | FOR GOOD MEASURE | | | ANOTHER SCOOP: PROP 33 ON THE AIRWAVES — The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is enlisting a well-known California figure in its push for Proposition 33, which would remove state rent-control limits: Dolores Huerta. The famed labor leader appears in the group’s new English- and Spanish-language radio ads, which tout the ballot measure: “Many Californians can’t pay rent and are asking, ‘Where will I live?’” Huerta says. “Rent control protects Californians. Yes on 33. Si se puede.” The ads will run in the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets for five weeks starting this morning, and come as ballot measure campaigns kick off their persuasion efforts in earnest. — Emily Schultheis
| | CASH DASH | | Monday was the filing deadline for candidates to file their latest campaign-finance reports. Among the House candidates whose FEC filings caught our eye (PS- check out today’s Playbook PM for a more in-depth breakdown): THE CATCH-UP KIDS — Democrats Rudy Salas and state Sen. Dave Min raised more than double their Republican opponents for competitive House seats from April through June. Salas, who is challenging incumbent GOP Rep. David Valadao in the Central Valley, collected $1.3 million in the second quarter compared to Valadao’s $615,000. Min hauled in nearly $1.4 million against Republican Scott Baugh’s $542,000 in the race for Rep. Katie Porter’s open Orange County seat. Valadao and Baugh still hold cash-on-hand advantages after Salas and Min were forced to spend in bruising primaries against fellow Democrats, though both Republicans saw their margins slip this quarter. Min cut Baugh’s lead in half and now trails by about $750,000, while Salas trimmed Valadao’s $887,000 advantage down to approximately $260,000.
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Assemblymember Evan Low. | Phillip Faraone/Getty Images | Getty Images | LOW’S NEW REALITY — Assemblymember Evan Low raised far less than Sam Liccardo in their Dem-on-Dem race for an open Silicon Valley House seat. Low raised just over $751,000 in the second quarter, compared with more than $1.6 million for Liccardo. The two are battling to represent the safe blue district of retiring Rep. Anna Eshoo. Low’s haul, less than half that of Liccardo’s, leaves him even further behind in the money race as he tries to slow the former San Jose mayor’s momentum (Liccardo finished first in the primary by a sizable margin). Low’s camp said he spent much of the quarter curing ballots and raising money to pay his legal bills amid a historic recount for second place between Low and a third Democrat, Joe Simitian. Low is in a rough spot heading into the summer: He only has about $846,000 cash on hand while Liccardo has nearly $2 million. It’s unfamiliar territory for Low, who’s been one of the most prolific fundraisers in the Legislature. CRYPTO’S INFLUENCE — Speaking of the heated contest between Low and Liccardo, FEC filings show the recount was funded, in part, by prominent crypto-currency executive Chris Larsen. The Ripple founder contributed $100,000 to Count the Vote, the PAC that paid for the recount and hadn’t previously disclosed its donors. Another major donor to Count the Vote was Daniel Warmenhoven, the former CEO of NetApp, a data storage company. He contributed $63,500. A third major source of the PAC’s money was Neighbors for Results, a pro-Liccardo super PAC bankrolled by billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Low opposed the recount, which was requested by a former Liccardo staffer and donor, Jonathan Padilla, — who kicked in $1,000. WEALTH GAP — Incumbent GOP Rep. Young Kim once again bested Democratic challenger Joe Kerr in the money matchup for a competitive but Republican-leaning Orange County seat. Her $1.3 million haul this quarter was more than seven times Kerr’s paltry $182,000, widening her cash-on-hand advantage to more than $3 million.
| | | ON THE AGENDA | | | PRIVATE MATTERS — California’s Privacy Protection Agency meets today in San Francisco for its bimonthly board meeting. The agency will continue discussing whether to begin formal rulemaking for automated decision making technology, an artificial intelligence tool that has been the subject of many quarrels in and out of the Legislature.
| | CLIMATE AND ENERGY | | CLIMATE'S STAR TURN — Hollywood executives and D.C. politicians have a long and storied history, filled with movie magic, flops and misunderstandings. Can a new consulting firm bring them together to tell stories that shift climate policy? We explore the promises and pitfalls when the Hill goes to Hollywood in last night's California Climate.
| | TOP TALKERS | | | | 
Former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, his vice presidential running mate. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | — Brew City is buzzing with news as the RNC enters day two, though former President Donald Trump choosing Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate is surely the lead story. Here are 55 things to know about Vance from POLITICO’s Ian Ward, plus a look at the backstory behind Trump’s running mate choice from Alex Isenstadt. — Meanwhile in Milwaukee, Trump met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discuss a potential endorsement from the independent. Kennedy denied he planned to drop out of the race. But if he did and endorsed Trump, such a move would put the former president in prime position to snag Kennedy’s voters, which measure in the double digits in some polls. (POLITICO) — We also learned what weapon was used in the Trump rally shooting last weekend: An AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, specifically a DPMS AR-15 5.56. Such weapons are banned in California but legal in most other states. Here are where efforts to ban AR-style rifles stand. (San Francisco Chronicle) WANT THE SCOOP ON THE RNC? Follow POLITICO’s live blog coverage for latest news as Republican power players meet this week in Milwaukee.
| | AROUND THE STATE | | — A San Diego County school district’s move to strike LGBTQ+ topics from its sex education curriculum violates the law, state investigators found. (San Diego Union-Tribune). — Fresno City College is preparing to end a housing plan despite being eligible for state money to continue the program, leaving some students on the brink of eviction. (Fresno Bee) — How a San Francisco couple’s window replacement project nearly became a $40,000 permit nightmare. (San Francisco Chronicle) — compiled by Tyler Katzenberger
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | PEOPLE MOVES — Emily Kassner-Marks is now press secretary for Rep. Robert Garcia. She was previously a press assistant in his office. STORK ALERT — Kori Anderson, a land use attorney at Allen Matkins LLP, and Sam Abbott, VP of product at Scopely, on July 8 welcomed Irene Stefel Abbott. Pic BIRTHDAYS — Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) … Marisol Samayoa of Rep. Adam Schiff’s office … Sheel Tyle … BELATED B-DAY WISHES — (was Monday): Ariel Zirulnick ... David S. Felman ... Feris M. Greenberger WANT A SHOUT-OUT FEATURED? — Send us a birthday, career move or another special occasion to include in POLITICO’s California Playbook. You can now submit a shout-out using this Google form. CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this subscriber-only service offers, click here. Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Rebecca Haase to find out how: rhaase@politico.com. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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