J.D. Vance brings a tech track record with him that could leave big companies rattled, Ashley and Maria write.
Why it matters: Vance belongs to the group of conservatives who are sympathetic to the idea that Big Tech companies should be broken up because he thinks they wield too much power.
- If he has Trump's ear on this issue, accusations of tech censorship may rise and antitrust enforcement could stay aggressive.
Flashback: Vance, once a venture capitalist, has long had support from the right wing of Silicon Valley.
- His Senate run was heavily bankrolled by Peter Thiel, a PayPal co-founder and early investor in Facebook, and he's also close to venture capitalist David Sacks.
- Vance has repeatedly referred to the "Big Tech oligarchy" and accused companies of having too much power over speech online and competition.
Once Vance got to the Senate, he got busy with a number of bipartisan tech policy issues, serving on the Commerce Committee's Communications, Media and Broadband and Space and Science panels.
- Vance teamed up with Sen. Peter Welch to try to revive the Affordable Connectivity Program, an internet bill discount that other Republicans have criticized.
- Vance is also a co-sponsor of the Kids Online Safety Act.
Vance previously has told Axios he enjoys working with Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell and blames congressional tech inaction on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer:
- "Between Maria and Schumer, I like working with Maria. There's been a lot of good legislation that's come out of the Commerce Committee that just hasn't gotten a vote ... and I put that more on the majority leader than anybody else."
Just last week at a Senate Commerce hearing, Vance said he's skeptical of heavy AI regulation because it could entrench Big Tech incumbents.
Our thought bubble: Vance often goes his own way in tech policy debates.
- When debate over the divest-or-ban TikTok bill was raging in the Senate, Vance told Axios he was skeptical of the bill because it gave the government too much power to go after an individual company.
- Another example is his support for the work of FTC Chair Lina Khan, who's aggressively gone after consolidation in the tech industry: He said at a February event that Khan was "one of the few people in the Biden administration actually doing a good job."
- Most of his Republican colleagues have railed against Khan and sided with business interests.
