Garry Tan, the local venture capitalist who has for years railed against progressive politicians on social media and served as the intersection between tech and center-right politics in the city, is formalizing his influence operation.
Tan, the CEO of the vaunted startup incubator Y Combinator, announced Wednesday he had spun up a dark-money group called “Garry’s List” that he described as a “voter education group” that is “dedicated to civic engagement, voter education and support for common-sense policies and candidates” in a press release. Such groups give donors a way to anonymously support causes without giving directly to a candidate or a measure.
“I want to work to ensure Californians know the importance of investment and entrepreneurship to our state’s current and future economy,” Tan wrote.
As a 501(c)4 nonprofit, Garry’s List will be able to spend money directly on candidates and ballot measures. It could also print voter guides, host in-person events, take out ads, and run programs training the next generation of elected officials. Tan said he plans to do all of the above.
But the operation is also a media venture: Garry’s List started with a blog pillorying public-sector unions as “special interests,” attacking the ongoing teachers’ strike, and denouncing the proposed billionaire tax. Tan has for years called on tech executives to create “parallel” media and “replace the unelected parts of the system,” like unions and nonprofits. “We need our own machine,” he said in 2023.
Tan has long been a voice espousing tough-on-crime, law-and-order politics in San Francisco. He has spent nearly half a million dollars in local races since 2015, and is known locally for his brashness: He once tweeted that seven of the city’s supervisors — all progressives — should “die slow, motherfuckers” in a late-night polemic. The tweet, which Tan said was a joke, prompted hateful mail and police reports.
He is now eyeing statewide change. Tan said he would “take the same education and engagement we used to turn around San Francisco” to all of California, and told the San Francisco Standard he pined for the “energy that I felt when we were first working on the recall of Chesa Boudin and the school board” in 2022.
The Jan. 27, 2024, post on X from Garry Tan that he said was a joking reference to Tupac lyrics.
Sam Singer, the “master of disaster” publicist who is working with Tan, did not disclose amounts or the source of funds for Garry’s List but said it had received donations from more individuals than just Tan. “There’s been a large amount of support from, as Garry calls them, ‘radical centrists’ to have an organization like this that is neither Democrat nor Republican, but is a pragmatic, centrist, and common-sense place,” said Singer.
Singer said “all 58 counties” in California are “on Garry’s map” and that the group would operate “from the Mexican border to the Oregon border.”
Garry’s List is the latest entry in a well-funded network of political donors that has helped push spending for local elections into the stratosphere.
Similar operations have seen mixed success. TogetherSF, a similar nonprofit backed by venture capitalist Michael Moritz, crashed and burned after the 2024 elections when its $9.5 million ballot measure to reform the city charter lost to a progressive counter-measure backed by about $117,000. Moritz subsequently pulled support.
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, once the top-spending group in city politics, is still a major player and took in $1 million last year. GrowSF, another operation that once counted Tan as a board member, recently announced it would spend $2 million in the 2026 election cycle.
Tan launched his group with two co-founders — one a seasoned lobbyist, the other a rough-and-tumble local type.
Shaudi Fulp is a Sacramento lobbyist leading operations at Grow California, a separate political action committee meant to fight the proposed billionaire tax, among other issues, that is wholly funded to the tune of $10 million by crypto executives Chris Larsen and Tim Draper.
Forrest Liu is a 30-something regular on local political campaigns who got his start in politics as an intern for former Mayor Ed Lee. In the years since, Liu acquired a reputation as an organizer focused on protecting Asian seniors from street harassment, and a reputation as a bully, for, among other things, challenging District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan to a fistfight. Liu has been hit with at least two police reports for harassment, which led some to think that his political career was on the wane. “I think Forrest is a type who’s going to burn out really quickly in politics,” said political consultant David Ho, in a 2024 profile.
Garry’s List is structured as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, a tax designation that lets the group bankroll campaigns while affording donors a measure of secrecy they would not enjoy if giving directly. They are traditionally known as “dark-money” groups because they can spend on elections without revealing all their donors.
The 501(c)4 rules are complicated but generally require that these groups spend less than half their funds on elections. While they can give to candidates directly, they are more commonly used to fund “independent expenditure” committees, which can spend unlimited funds on campaigns so long as they are not found to have communicated with those campaigns directly.
The rest of a 501(c)4’s funding must go towards “social welfare” activities, which can include the “voter education” guides and events Tan has promised. Because these often raise the public profile of a group, the portion of a 501(c)4’s spending that is “charitable” is often more significant in laying the groundwork for long-term political power than donations made during a single election.
Tan says that’s the plan. He told the Standard he aims to stand up “political infrastructure for the next 20 years.”