Facebook’s Zuckerberg to host fundraiser for Republican
WASHINGTON • Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is making a foray into politics by hosting a fundraising event for Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey.
The 28-year-old billionaire and his wife, Priscilla Chan, will host Christie at their California home next month and charge the Republican’s supporters for the privilege of attending.
The event, which will raise funds for Christie’s re-election effort in November, came as a surprise to many political observers who associate Silicon Valley with liberal politics.
Christie, who is considered a leading contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has long presented himself as a pragmatist able to get results in a deeply Democrat state.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy last autumn, he praised President Barack Obama and criticized Republicans in Congress for holding up relief funding for victims of the storm.
Zuckerberg and Christie came into contact in 2010, when the Facebook executive donated $100 million to the school system in Newark, one of New Jersey’s most troubled cities.
“Mark and Priscilla have worked closely with Governor Christie on education reform in the Newark school system,” said a Facebook spokesman.
“They admire his leadership on education reform and other issues and look forward to continuing their important work together on behalf of Newark’s schoolchildren.”
Zuckerberg has previously attended events with Obama, including a dinner party in California at which the president joked that he managed to get the Internet tycoon to abandon his usual T-shirt in exchange for a shirt and tie.
Little is known about Zuckerberg’s politics and Federal Election Commission records show that his only previous campaign contributions have been to Facebook’s in-house political action committee, to which he made two $10,000 donations in 2011 and 2012.
The Facebook committee donated to figures in both parties last year, such as John Boehner, the Republican House Speaker, and Nancy Pelosi, his Democrat counterpart.