Ben and Felicia Horowitz’s political pivot from liberal darlings to Trump backers

Former President Donald Trump had been the problem for years. Now, he’s the solution. 

That’s the sharp pivot several Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are making, including billionaire Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the influential venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Horowitz and his wife, Felicia, were power players in liberal political circles. 

They hosted backyard barbecues at their Atherton, California, estate where they partied with tech royalty like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Oprah, Gayle King, Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles, actor Terry Crews, and Van Jones.

They took pictures with San Francisco Democratic Mayor London Breed and cozied up to Vice President Kamala Harris. The couple also spent a small fortune backing the campaigns of former President Barack Obama, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). The Horowitzes frequently rubbed shoulders with rappers Nas and MC Hammer and broke bread with record executive L.A. Reid and Harlem fashion designer Dapper Dan.

The couple’s philanthropic ventures also highlighted diversity and inclusion. 

The Horowitz Family Foundation gave more than $1 million to the American Jewish World Service, a human rights organization, and more than $500,000 to groups associated with anti-recidivism and prison outreach. 

Felicia Horowitz spent time and donated nearly $1 million to Glide, a nondenominational church in San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin district that provides services for the homeless and is known for its social justice. Eight years ago, she won the church’s top reward, named after co-founder Janice Mirikitani.

Both Mirikitani and her late husband, Cecil Williams, were also guests at the Horowitzes’ backyard barbecues. 

After her son came out as transgender, Felicia Horowitz wrote in a since-deleted essay on Medium about her work at Glide. She said she had “the privilege of befriending many wonderful transgender people and that has been so great for me, but it has taught me that the transgender road is every bit as hard as the statistics would indicate.” 

“Thinking about it, writing about it, feeling it, makes me want to burst into tears right now,” she added. 

Since then, things have taken a turn. 

The couple has publicly endorsed Trump and vowed to give a “significant” amount of money to his campaign. Felicia Horowitz scrubbed her social media of all photos with any liberal politicians, including Obama and Breed, and recently donated 25 times to Republican politicians and PACs, including Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Trump’s running mate. 

Her X banner now reads “Exiting the Matrix” — a likely reference to the 1990s movie that has become popular within some conservative subcultures. The San Francisco Standard reported a drop-off in donations to Glide, marking the first time in five years the couple did not give to the group. 

The couple’s friends seemed to indicate to the outlet they are perplexed by the about-face, both politically and socially. 

According to Federal Election Commission records, 82 of Ben Horowitz’s 123 donations went to Republican candidates or PACs, including Vance, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), through May 2024. Before 2022, neither of the Horowitzes had donated to a Republican.  

In fact, Horowitz and his father, David, were profiled in a 2017 New York Times article that looked at the family, its political evolution, and division. 

David Horowitz had gone from helping create the New Left in the 1960s and working closely with the Black Panthers to becoming Trump’s “intellectual godfather.”

The deep dive into the family portrayed David Horowitz on one side of the political spectrum and his son, Ben, on the other. 

These days they seem more aligned than ever. 

On his 90-minute podcast a month ago, Horowitz said he was all-in on Trump because he promised less regulation and lower taxes, two commitments Horowitz said would stimulate innovation. He also believes Trump will enact policies that will be more beneficial for cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.

Horowitz and his partner Marc Andreessen’s firm has raised $7.6 billion for crypto and blockchain investments, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.  

“I’m going to have a lot of friends who are probably pissed off at me for saying anything nice about President Trump,” Andreessen said on the podcast episode of The Ben & Marc Show where he and Horowitz endorsed Trump. 

Andreessen and Horowitz were early investors in some of Silicon Valley’s most successful startups, including Facebook, Airbnb, and Twitter. Andreessen is considered one of tech’s most influential thinkers and the duo’s decision to back Trump has shaken up the industry.

In response, more than 600 venture capitalists have publicly endorsed Harris. 

As for Horowitz, he has come out as a fierce defender of his wife and posted she “has done more than anybody in Silicon Valley to bring people of all walks of life together in tech and lift up the people in society who struggle the most.” 

He also cited her philanthropic work with “The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Stanford Hospital and The Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and creative programs for disadvantaged youth like the Chloe and Maud Foundation, The Apollo Theater, Las Vegas Dance and Arts, and Where Art Can Occur among many other causes.”