Melinda French Gates, one of the world’s wealthiest women, has endorsed the presidential candidate Joe Biden.
French Gates’s endorsement comes with a pointed critique of former President Donald Trump, whose policies she claims have jeopardised women’s health and freedoms.
She specifically condemned Trump’s restrictive measures on reproductive services and his Supreme Court appointments, which led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Melinda Gates has been advocating for women and girls, particularly in Africa through her philanthropy. Prior, her role as co-chair role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, over the last 10 years, saw sub-Saharan Africa benefit at least $10 billion.
She is also one of the few female billionaires to endorse a world leader for the presidency. While female billionaires are few in Africa, none have openly endorsed African leaders.
The former wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and a prominent philanthropist, French Gates has a net worth of $13.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. She articulated her support in a CNN op-ed, highlighting the election’s crucial importance for women and families.
French Gates stated:
“I’ve never endorsed a presidential candidate before. But this year’s election stands to be so enormously consequential for women and families that, this time, I can’t stay quiet.
“Women deserve a leader who cares about the issues they face and is committed to protecting their safety, their health, their economic power, their reproductive rights, and their ability to freely and fully participate in a functioning democracy. In this election, the contrast couldn’t be greater, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
“I will be voting for President Biden.
French Gates commended Biden for reinstating funding for reproductive services and supporting access to medication such as mifepristone.
Hitting back at former President Donald Trump over his “sometimes violent rhetoric throughout his campaigns and administration” — She maintained that Trump contributed to a “hostile political climate for women in office and allowed threats against election workers, most of whom are women, to proliferate.”
This endorsement aligns with French Gates’s ongoing advocacy through Pivotal Ventures, her venture capital firm, which focuses on increasing women’s representation in politics and advancing gender equality.
French Gates recently unveiled plans to allocate about $1 billion through 2026 aimed at advancing women’s empowerment worldwide. This follows a previous disbursement of $200 million to a select group of global leaders. Among these leaders is Hauwa Ojeifo, a prominent Nigerian mental health advocate, entrusted with distributing funds to various organizations.
What you should know
Melinda Gates is not the only one supporting President Biden. Michael R. Bloomberg, former New York City mayor, has donated nearly $20 million to Biden’s re-election campaign. Bloomberg gave $19 million to Future Forward, a major Democratic group, and $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund.
Additionally, a pro-Biden group backed by tech billionaires, co-founder Facebook Dustin Moskovitz and LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman is launching a social media campaign to counter Trump.
Future Forward USA Action is raising $10 million to study social media trends and promote pro-Biden content, especially on TikTok, to challenge Trump’s popularity online.