Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs, is so close to Kamala Harris that campaign staffers call Ms. Jobs merely “LPJ.” It would be hard to find anyone closer to Harris or find any of those friendships so consequential. “Over the past 20 years, she has become one of Ms. Harris’s most essential confidantes, providing counsel and money, and helping to expand Ms. Harris’s public profile,” reported the New York Times. According to the New York Times, LPJ “played a hidden but key role in helping usher Mr. Biden out of the race” and paving the way to have Harris replace him on the ticket. Jobs has become a powerful player in the campaign, and could have an “insider” position in a possible Harris White House.
In 2003, LPJ contributed $500 to Kamala’s first run for District Attorney of San Francisco and the following year they attended the “March for Women’s Lives” in Washington, D.C., where they were part of an organized group of women leaders from the Bay Area which they called the “posse.” Since then, they have gone to each other’s family events such as weddings and other activities. The two women go on personal trips together, sometimes on Jobs’s private jet, and when they find themselves in the same city, they rearrange their schedules in order to have a one-on-one meal together. They even share the same celebrity dermatologist. One of Jobs’s business associates said, “Laurene has a gift for friendship, especially old friends—she is tribally loyal … [and] Kamala Harris falls within that ring of friends.” A fellow philanthropist recalled the look on Jobs’s face watching the 2011 swearing-in ceremony of Kamala Harris as attorney general. “Laurene looking so proudly at Kamala when she was speaking, and just seeing this great sense of appreciation and pride. I know she’s just besides herself with joy,” the philanthropist said.
The main controller of Jobs seems to be David Simas, CEO of the Obama Foundation for several years, and who was the Obama White House Director of Political Affairs. During those years Simas worked under David Axelrod and is now Jobs’s policy aide, overseeing her political research. LPJ is an activist billionaire and mobilizes other mega-donors using the research, polling data, and focus-group findings from Simas. Simas, using his influence over her, was a key player in convincing the mega-donors to turn off the cash-flow to Biden’s re-election effort, and then later turning the cash-flow back into high gear when Harris replaced Biden. Jobs has promoted 17 super PACs connected with Harris’s campaign.
Jobs has founded several public policy institutes and media endeavors, but in 2011 her biggest creation was the Emerson Collective (named after the Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson). The Emerson Collective on the surface appears to be a non-profit organization. However, Jobs founded it to be a business that “combines venture capital investing and philanthropic grant-making to address issues in education, economic mobility, immigration reform, and the environment.” She preferred the business model for public policy institutes, because it gives her more control, is not answerable to anyone, and public policy can be executed out of the public eye and without public input. Jobs is also the board chair for The Atlantic magazine and is on the boards of the Ford Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Jobs’s late husband, Steve Jobs, had a reputation as a bully in his business life and also his family life. According to some, LPJ not only tolerated his bullying, but also enabled it, according to multiple sources including Business Insider. The book Small Fry: A Memoir by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the daughter from Steve Jobs’ first marriage, also partly confirms the many charges against Steve Jobs.
