Gina Raimondo Getting Vetted for VP Is a Great Sign for Corporate America
Even if Raimondo is passed over for Kamala Harris's running mate, the Big Tech favorite will be in serious contention for Harris's Cabinet.
As Kamala Harris faces pressure from major Democratic donors to drop Lina Khan as Federal Trade Commission chair, the vice president is reportedly vetting Big Tech’s favorite Biden cabinet official as a possible running mate. At the helm of the Department of Commerce, Gina Raimondo has served as the tech industry’s backdoor into the Biden administration, meeting frequently with executives and pushing Big Tech priorities in trade negotiations and to overseas regulators.
LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman, who publicly demanded Harris fire Khan, is a Raimondo fan. “A lot of people from around the world come to Silicon Valley to try to understand what they can learn to improve their region,” Hoffman told Time, referencing a dinner he hosted for Raimondo in Silicon Valley in 2016. “The funny thing is, very few U.S. politicians do that. Gina is one of those few.”
“I try so hard to talk to as many people in the industry as possible,” Raimondo told Time.
In 2022, a coalition of watchdogs demanded that Raimondo disclose her calendars. The Department of Commerce initially resisted, but ultimately released them. The most recently publicly available calendars, reviewed by Drop Site, reveal that between 2021 and September 2023, she met with executives from the big five tech firms—Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft—at least 48 times.
“You can’t meet with her,” said Emily Peterson-Cassin, the director of corporate power at Demand Progress, which was on the coalition letter. “And then the schedules come out, and she’s meeting with every tech company, every finance company, every corporation under the sun—and when it comes to people who work in the public interest or protect consumers, there’s nothing.”
Between 2021 and September 2023, Raimondo met with executives from the big five tech firms—Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft—at least 48 times.
“Raimondo postures as big tech’s representative in the Biden administration,” said Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project, a progressive advocacy group. “She brags about hiring Wall Street people to exercise the Commerce Department’s radically enhanced jurisdiction.”
By vetting Raimondo, Harris draws from the corporatist wing of the Biden administration and signals a potential shift away from President Joe Biden’s anti-monopoly efforts. Harris has yet to comment publicly on Khan nor indicate whether she will hew to Biden’s antitrust agenda, but her backers in the tech industry who are optimistic she will take a softer approach. An anonymous Democratic donor told the New York Times that Harris has privately expressed skepticism of “Khan’s expansive view of antitrust powers.”
While advocates see the vice presidential ticket as a long shot for Raimondo, they’re concerned about her ambitions within a potential Harris administration. “What I’m worried about is that they’re going to turn the fact that she’s a vetted candidate into making her head of Treasury,” said Peterson-Cassin, “which would be a disaster.”
Venture Capital to Pension Funds
Raimondo came to politics by way of venture capitalism, joining the venture capital firm Village Ventures, and then founding her own, Point Judith Capital, in 2001. In 2010, she was elected treasurer of Rhode Island, fueled by out-of-state financial industry donations. She inherited a crisis in the state pension system, which was being propped up by taxpayers and eating up funding for key state services.
Raimondo tackled the problem by halting cost of living increases for retirees, moving public employee pensions into 401(k)-style accounts, and investing the state’s money into hedge funds like Paul Singer’s Elliott Management—costing the state tens of millions of dollars each year in fees while delivering subpar performance. Amid the overhaul, Raimondo invested state pension fund money in her own Point Judith Capital, which Raimondo still held equity in. That fund also performed poorly while collecting more than $1 million in management fees alone from Rhode Island before the state was finally able to withdraw its investments in 2021.
The overhaul won Raimondo the ire of public sector unions—and the praise of the financial industry, which sponsored her bid for governor in 2014 and reelection in 2018. Raimondo touted some progressive accomplishments as governor including making one of the state’s community colleges free. But in 2015 she came under fire from pro-choice groups for negotiating a budget deal that required health insurers to offer plans on the state exchange that excluded coverage for abortions. And progressives attacked her for partially privatizing and repeatedly cutting Medicaid.
During the pandemic, Raimondo drew criticism from public health experts for keeping businesses open as she oversaw some of the highest rates of death from Covid-19 in the country, before being tapped to serve as Biden’s Commerce Secretary.
Backdoor for Big Tech
Upon joining the cabinet, Raimondo quickly became known as a liaison for big tech into the Biden administration. In her first seven months as commerce secretary, Raimondo met or spoke with 230 CEOs, executives, or trade groups, according to her schedules—including the CEOs of Apple and Google. Tech industry officials saw her as a “key advocate” inside an administration proposing antitrust actions they opposed, Axios reported.
The Commerce Secretary job typically goes to someone who can cultivate these business relationships. “You put your rich person talker at Commerce,” Hauser said. “If corporate leaders are trying to find a way into the Biden administration, they can talk to Raimondo.”
At times, Raimondo has worked against Biden administration policies. In her first year on the job, Raimondo criticized proposed European Union big tech regulations for targeting American firms.
“We have serious concerns that these proposals will disproportionately impact U.S.-based tech firms, and their ability to adequately serve EU customers, and uphold security and privacy standards,” Raimondo said at a December 2021 U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, adding, “now more than ever, we encourage officials to continue listening to concerns by stakeholders before finalizing their decision.” Raimondo also reportedly discussed her concerns regarding the antitrust rules with EU officials.
Raimondo, who reportedly “dazzled” Biden’s own vice presidential search committee, has been tasked with implementing major Biden-era initiatives.
The comments “appear to publicly undermine the Administration’s previously announced policies to protect consumers and workers from Big Tech monopolies” U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote in a letter to Raimondo. “It makes little sense for you to go before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which opposes all these Administration efforts, and promise to defend U.S. Big Tech firms from competition policies designed to achieve the same goals as the Biden Administration’s policies merely because they emerge from our allies.” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had reportedly told Raimondo he felt Amazon was unfairly targeted by the EU tech law.
The White House ultimately declined requests from major companies like Apple and Google to defy the EU measures. Raimondo has denied that there is a split between her and the rest of the Biden administration when it comes to antitrust. In 2022, she endorsed domestic bipartisan antitrust legislation.
Raimondo’s Corporate Hires
As Raimondo liaised with corporate executives, she staffed her agency with personnel from the tech industry and Wall Street, drawing scrutiny from progressives. When she was leading major digital trade negotiations in 2022, the American Prospect reported that some of her top officials and trade negotiators previously worked or lobbied for Google, Amazon, Dropbox, and Visa. In those trade talks, Raimondo pushed big-tech backed data privacy and data localization rules.
In July 2022, Warren and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., sent Commerce a letter demanding that Raimondo disclose information about “the abundance of Big Tech alumni within the Department,” which they said “raise serious concerns about your agency’s approach to digital trade policy.”
Raimondo, who reportedly “dazzled” Biden’s own vice presidential search committee, has been given increasing powers as the Commerce Department has been tasked with implementing major Biden-era initiatives including parts of the bipartisan infrastructure law and the CHIPS Act, a funding bill for semiconductor research and manufacturing. (Biden has also made Raimondo the administration’s point person on artificial intelligence—which has pleased the industry.)
In order to implement the CHIPS Act, Raimondo has drawn on Wall Street expertise. She tapped former Goldman Sachs and KKR executives to comprise her team distributing the $100 billion allocated by the law to spur semiconductor production.
“Raimondo is the single best Democrat at impressing the financial class to invest in her as a reasonable Democrat,” said Hauser.
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Julia Rock rocks. This is exactly the sort of information that needs wide exposure. When VP Harris was anointed THE Democratic Party presidential candidate, there was nothing democratic about the process. If Raimondo is the sort of person she will be affiliating with, it’s best to know now. There has been great excitement about the Harris candidacy because it’s no longer candidate Biden. But so far there has not been much differentiating her platforms and views apart from the current administration’s policies.
The likelihood that Harris would pick someone who has real progressive bonafides is beyond unbelievable. I imagine that whatever Harris does, and whomever she picks, it won't make a bit of difference. I'm voting for Dr. Jill Stein, again.