IF JACOB HACKER AND Paul Pierson were inclined to invent an imaginary political figure to prove their thesis, I am not sure they could do better than me. As a representative of Silicon Valley and a former co-chair of Bernie Sanders’s campaign, my career over the last seven years is an example of the U-shaped politics that Hacker and Pierson posit is possible for the Democratic party. I represent one of the richest districts in the nation—$10 trillion of market cap between Apple, Google, Tesla, Nvidia, and about thirty other companies. At the same time, I have embraced an agenda of Medicare for All, free public college, child care at $10 a day, progressive taxation, and a living wage. Sanders also carried my district in the 2020 Democratic primary in California over Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and the other more moderate candidates.
What then explains the success of my politics in my district? Why would a large number of affluent voters support policies that are focused on helping working-class and middle-class Americans have a better shot at economic opportunity? Why, moreover, has my district celebrated my initiatives to invest in economic projects far away from home—in rural communities and deindustrialized towns, and in Black and Brown communities that have not had the same prospects for intergenerational wealth generation?
Hacker and Pierson are right that many of the affluent voters recognize that the investments in child care, health care, education, housing, transportation and climate will improve the quality of life for our community as a whole. Voters in the upper middle class still believe that costs are too high for the big-ticket items in American life—most saliently child care, housing, college, and health care, and that their own families would benefit from more robust public investments. In my district, even households with an income of $250,000 feel some level of stress about how expensive life can be in the Bay Area. So there is a broad electoral coalition for these kind of investments, much as there is a broad coalition for social security and public education. These are social investments that the vast majority of Americans see as good for their families.