Billionaire tech investor Ron Conway is a major funder of the campaign seeking to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.
The official campaign committee promoting the recall recently posted on its website a list of major funders, including Ron Conway, a relative of his named Chris Conway, and another political committee called Foundational Oakland Unites. The recall committee’s website doesn’t detail how much cash Conway and others have contributed, and the committees haven’t yet had to file reports with local election officials that would reveal exact amounts.
Conway, whose SV Angel venture capital firm has owned big stakes in Google, Meta, and Twitter, didn’t return phone calls and emails requesting an interview.
Retired judge and former police commissioner Brenda Harbin-Forte, the recall campaign’s principal organizer, declined to speak to The Oaklandside.
“We view your publication’s biased reporting as an affront to the essence of the First Amendment, and a dereliction of your duty to report truthfully on all sides of issues, without fear or favor,” she wrote in an email that cc’ed members of Cityside’s board of directors. The recall campaign “remains principled in its associations, choosing to engage with media entities and individuals with shared values. We want voters to decide the recall based on the merits of the issues and the true facts, not on The Oaklandside’s propaganda.”
The recall campaign’s media coordinator, Seneca Scott, did not respond to an email.
Depending on how much financial support he’s providing, Conway could give a big boost to the recall. To successfully get a recall placed on the ballot, supporters must collect tens of thousands of signatures. This time-consuming work is typically undertaken by paid signature gatherers, and it can cost a lot of money. For example, the recall campaign targeting Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has spent over $2.2 million, mostly contributed by a handful of wealthy people.
Recall supporters, like Harbin-Forte, say Thao made the wrong decision when she fired former Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, and they fault her for Oakland’s high rates of some forms of crime, including burglaries, robberies, and shootings.
Harbin-Forte became increasingly critical of Thao after the mayor removed her from the police commission last June. Harbin-Forte’s term on the commission had expired in October 2022, but she stayed on for another seven months because then-Mayor Libby Schaaf, and later Thao, had not picked a replacement or moved to reappoint her. When Thao removed Harbin-Forte last year, she thanked her for her service, described her as a “holdover” from the previous administration, and explained that she wanted to appoint her own person to the board.
“There are too many lives that have been lost, too many cars stolen, too many people who have been robbed—coming from a bank, followed home. Too many businesses have even closed. This mayor has blood on her hands,” Harbin-Forte said in January after sending Thao a notice that the recall campaign was underway. In a recent interview, she said concerns about crime, which prompted some downtown employers to issue safety notices to their employees, are “another example of the failed leadership from our mayor.”
Thao’s supporters say crime and homelessness have plagued Oakland for decades, and it’s unfair to pin blame on the mayor, who is a little over a year into her first term. They also say it’s undemocratic for a few wealthy people to bankroll recall campaigns after an election doesn’t go their way.
“When a billionaire from San Francisco can buy a special election because he didn’t like the results of the general election—that’s a serious abuse of power,” said Chaney Turner, a lifelong Oaklander and cannabis entrepreneur who serves on the city’s Cannabis Commission and ran for a seat on the local Democratic Party board in this month’s primary election.
At a recent press conference organized by Thao’s supporters, Saabir Lockett, executive director of the reentry organization Pathways 2 Peace, called the recall “simply ridiculous,” and said that Thao has been invested in improving public safety for years. “The recall efforts against the mayor came about the day she was put into office,” Lockett said. “We see the hustle, we see the game, and we won’t be deterred by the threats, or the public shaming, and we’ll continue to stand up for democracy.”
Conway has spent big money on a wide range of political causes
Two years ago, Conway helped raise money for the recall campaign that successfully ousted San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. This year, he was among the biggest contributors to San Francisco’s Proposition E—approved by voters last night—which will weaken the city’s police commission by loosening rules around police pursuits and allow SFPD to use surveillance tools with less civilian oversight, among other changes.
Conway first became deeply involved in San Francisco politics in 2011 after Ed Lee passed a law that exempted Twitter from paying some city taxes. Conway, whose investment firm owned a stake in Twitter, became a key advisor to Lee. He went on to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on San Francisco elections, backing politicians who supported the tech industry. One independent political committee set up by Conway raised $700,000 from tech executives to support Lee’s campaign for mayor.
A recent investigation by Mission Local and The Guardian identified Conway as one of the major influencers in San Francisco politics. He has poured money into political organizations, including GrowSF, Progress SF, SF Guardians, and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy.
Conway has also spent millions on federal elections. In 2023, he contributed $3.8 million to a range of candidates running for Congress in dozens of states, Democratic Party committees, and Democratic super PACs, according to Federal Elections Commission data. He was a major contributor to Mind The Gap in 2018 and 2019, a group that channeled Silicon Valley wealth into Democratic campaigns.
In 2013, Conway became a prominent supporter of gun safety. He launched an initiative calling on business leaders to devise new gun safety technologies that could reduce firearm deaths.
He was also outspoken against immigration restrictions during Trump’s presidency, and he helped found the advocacy group FWD.US, which advocates for legislation to protect some undocumented immigrants, including child arrivals and people with temporary protected status. His company SV Angel recently joined an amicus brief to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
In the East Bay, Conway’s direct involvement in politics has been limited
Conway gave $5,000 to Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley’s reelection campaign in 2018. In 2022, he contributed $5,000 to the “Golden State Communities Project,” a committee that opposed Pamela Price in the district attorney’s race. Conway’s last foray into Oakland politics was a $15,000 contribution he made to a committee that backed Derreck Johnson’s unsuccessful campaign against Rebecca Kaplan for the City Council at-large seat in 2020.
Conway has some business ties to Oakland. He is currently listed as a member of the advisory board for TMG Partners, a major real estate firm that has developed properties downtown. Some of the companies he’s invested in, like Airbnb, do business in Oakland. Oakland is currently looking into new regulations that would apply to short-term rental companies like Airbnb.
In 2015, Conway donated $100,000 to a scholarship fund established by then-Mayor Libby Schaaf. He has also endorsed Schaaf’s campaign for California State Treasurer.
Chris Conway, another major contributor to the recall campaign, appears to be Ron Conway’s son, who normally goes by the name Topher. According to campaign finance records, Topher Conway is a managing partner at SV Angel and contributed $10,000 to support Proposition E in San Francisco. Two years ago, he contributed almost $190,000 worth of stock to the Chesa Boudin recall campaign.
The third major funder of the Thao recall campaign, Foundational Oakland Unites, is a political committee established last month. According to paperwork the committee filed with election officials, its purpose is to “counter the Radical Activist Class’ grip on Oakland” by repealing ranked choice voting and endorsing candidates for city offices. The leader of Foundational Oakland Unites, Tanya Boyce, is a planning manager in Fort Worth, Texas, and executive director of the Oakland-based Environmental Democracy Project, according to her LinkedIn page. Boyce did not respond to an interview request.
