The general election showed that by December of 2022, she had more than ten times the amount in resources to her closest rival, all in thanks to her rich family.
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) has received millions of dollars towards her congressional races from her tech-billionaire grandparents, leading many to wonder if the Qualcomm heiress will continue to use their money for her 2024 congressional campaign.
The granddaughter of Qualcomm’s Irwin Jacobs, founder and former chairman of the Fortune 500 company, the Jacobs family became billionaires through Department of Defense contracts, with Qualcomm producing semiconductors and telecommunications equipment.
After Sara Jacobs announced her 2020 congressional run, Irwin Jacobs, in a show of tech wealth, financed a Super PAC named “Forward California,” which spent $2.8 million on mailers and ads for their granddaughter.
In 2020, the PAC also spent over $700,000 in one month alone to create TV ads to oppose her primary opponent, Georgette Gomez. According to a Sludge report, the Jacobs grandparents were purported to be the only contributors to the PAC, capitalizing on the Citizens United ruling which removed the cap on election spending as long as the donors were independent of the candidate. Sarah herself contributed approximately $5 million, money that came from who knows where.
Campaign Strategist Dan Rottenstreich said in an interview, “The idea that a PAC funded by millions of dollars from the Jacobs family is actually independent from Sara Jacobs is laughable.”
Jacobs, who ran on a campaign platform supporting the Green New Deal, Medicare for all, and future citizenship for illegal immigrants, is said to own $25 million worth of stock in her grandparents’ company Qualcomm, along with tech and pharmaceutical stocks in Apple, Paypal, Microsoft, Alphabet, Astrazeneca, Merck, and Gilead Sciences.
In a race that had 14 candidates in the primary election, money played an important part in propelling Sara Jacobs to the top with a 29% vote from the San Diego constituents. The general election showed that by December of 2022, she had more than ten times the amount in resources to her closest rival in a Ballotpedia review.
