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 Happy Tuesday again, and happy holidays.
Welcome back to Puck, and my weekly reportage and analysis on the world of Silicon Valley wealth. The gifting season don't have to be over—you can buy a friend or an enemy a membership to Puck at this link or by emailing fritz@puck.news. And if this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up for previews of my columns here.
Discussed in today's piece: Bill and Melinda Gates, Nick Kristof, Jesse Sullivan, Chris Larsen, Dustin Moskovitz, Sam Bankman-Fried, Ron Conway, and Joe Biden. As always, my inbox is open for your thoughts and tips.
Thanks,
 Among the under-appreciated stories of modern politics is how key relationships with a Silicon Valley benefactor or two can transform long-shot candidates into bonafide contenders. And with more money than ever, tech titans are discovering new battlefields to assert their will. It is January, and it is officially an election year. One of the big questions I’ve been reporting on over the last 18 months or so is whether Silicon Valley is done with politics—or is it just getting started? Donald Trump is no longer on the ballot, at least this fall, but there are a few telltale down ballot campaigns on my radar. They’re not the typical races that national media outlets will be covering, but they are races where, for one reason or another, some of the tech industry’s most influential players are asserting their will.
Plus, read all the way through for a little insight into Ron Conway’s latest tiff with the White House over pandemic readiness. Because the midterms aren’t the only big story of 2022—we know, sadly, that Covid will remain one, too.
For decades, Bill and Melinda Gates cultivated a reputation as above mere partisanship. They were, after all, one of America’s most celebrated non-celebrity couples, philanthropy rock stars knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and they had quite intentionally avoided descending into the earthly, oft-ugly world of political patronage, where contributions can recoil on billionaires who, above all else, want to maintain their status as citizens of the world.
But in recent years, they’ve quietly begun to drop that posture. Their newfound largesse caught my attention thanks to Nick Kristof, the former Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist whose focus on global human rights issues frequently intersected with the interests of the Gates Foundation. Kristof is now running for governor in his native Oregon, and late last year, he gained the support of the world’s second wealthiest woman: Melinda French Gates donated $50,000 to Kristof, making her one his campaign’s biggest donors—and more importantly, constituting her single largest donation ever.
The gift to Kristof hints at some evolution in the Gateses’ political philosophy...
FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT  Part II of my year-end list of the 22 boldest, totally bankable, 100 percent probable predictions from true industry insiders. MATTHEW BELLONI  Notes on the president’s 2024 thinking, the Kamala curse, and the limitations of the Youngkin-McCormick MAGA playbook. PETER HAMBY  Ben Smith and Justin Smith had been quietly discussing their new media ambitions, on and off, for years. Here's what they had to say. DYLAN BYERS  Notes on McCormick’s 2022 playbook, Chamath’s SPAC folly, more meme-stock insanity, and the passing of a Wall Street icon. WILLIAM D. COHAN
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