Which presidential campaign is winning over Silicon Valley? 'None of them'

Candidates are tripping over one another to present as hip to the culture and needs of Silicon Valley, embracing tech buzzwords and marveling at the possibilities of the sharing economy. The candidates talk about tech all the time, but in the offices of startups and the boardrooms of venture capital firms, there is little excitement about the crop of politicians whose outreach tends to involve clumsy efforts to speak the language of innovation followed by an appeal for campaign checks. “They are completely out of touch,” said Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur and academic whom campaigns often consult for advice. “I talk to these candidates all the time. They are clueless about what Silicon Valley needs.… A lot of them are trying to connect here. None of them is succeeding. No one is even close.”

Candidates are stumbling as the needs of the innovation economy run in conflict with those of the more established industries these politicians have been aligned with for years. Republicans tend to be cozy with cable and telephone companies and have been unable to reconcile that with Silicon Valley’s evangelical devotion to network neutrality. And while GOP calls to ease regulatory burdens on innovators have appeal, Republicans' generally hard line on immigration is a big loser with tech.