Tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg—chairman and CEO of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—is taking on the services of establishment Republican money man Brian Baker to help smooth relations with GOP lawmakers and center-right think tankers in Washington, D.C. Baker is no stranger to the Facebook co-founder and billionaire, having helped Zuckerberg’s so-called “election infrastructure” efforts during the 2022 midterm elections.
Baker has a long history in Republican establishment politics in Washington, D.C., serving as the political money man for the billionaire Ricketts family out of Nebraska for over a decade. Former Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts (R) currently sits in the U.S. Senate as one of the state’s two Republican senators. The family also owns the Chicago Cubs professional baseball franchise.
Additionally, Baker—a Chicago, Illinois native—heads Ending Spending, Inc., a nonprofit group that engages in electioneering. In 2017, Ending Spending, Inc. paid Baker $3 million.
The GOP establishment money man is a fixture—alongside lobbyists for companies like Apple, Comcast, and Microsoft—at political fundraisers around the nation’s capital, with many center-right think tanks and candidates hoping to gain access to the Ricketts family wealth. His longstanding ties on Capitol Hill and history as a conduit for wealthy GOP donor money will undoubtedly make Baker an effective force of influence for Zuckerberg and Meta.
Prior to the 2016 election, Baker was a staunch opponent of Donald J. Trump. Though following the America First leader’s Republican primary victory, Baker eventually formed a SuperPAC focused on funding anti-Hillary Clinton campaign advertisements.
ZUCKBUCKS & ELECTION INTERFERENCE.
Zuckerberg’s relationship with America’s political right has deteriorated drastically since the 2020 presidential election. The Meta CEO has been accused by many on the right of using his vast wealth and companies to interfere in American elections.
He admitted that his social media platform, Facebook, was pressured by the Biden-Harris government to censor Americans who posted about the COVID-19 pandemic on his website. Additionally, the tech billionaire acknowledges that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had warned them about potential Russian disinformation regarding Burisma and the Biden family, which directly resulted in the New York Post‘s Hunter Biden laptop story being suppressed on Facebook.
Meanwhile, the Facebook founder’s Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) pours vast sums of ‘Zuckerbucks’ into what are supposed to be improved voter access initiatives, such as new absentee ballot drop boxes. However, the schemes overwhelmingly benefit Democratic-leaning areas, with election integrity groups arguing they grant leftists greater voting access than conservatives and are, therefore, unlawful.