MAGA WhatsApp co-founder gives $250K to pro-Lurie PAC

A man with dark hair and glasses, wearing a white shirt, sits on grass in a park on a sunny day, smiling at the camera.

by JOE RIVANO BARROSApril 14, 2026, 1:54 pm

Split image showing two men: the left man is in casual clothing in a dimly lit setting, while the right man is in a suit outdoors with people and buildings in the background.

Jan Koum and Daniel Lurie. Koum photo courtesy of Tech.eu Photostream, Lurie photo by Abigail Van Neely.

The co-founder of WhatsApp and a top Donald Trump supporter, Jan Koum, has just donated $250,000 to a political action committee helmed by allies of Mayor Daniel Lurie that is spending significantly on the mayor’s priorities this election cycle.

Koum has given millions of dollars to Republican candidates and in 2024 gave a little over $5 million to MAGA, Inc., a PAC for then-candidate Donald Trump; he gave another $1 million to MAGA, Inc. in 2025.

Koum made the recent quarter-million dollar donation on April 13 to “S.F. Believes,” a PAC supporting Lurie-backed measures and his allies on the Board of Supervisors; it has already spent $146,000 on District 4 supervisor Alan Wong’s election, and another $47,000 on District 2 supervisor Stephen Sherrill’s race.

Wong is a Lurie appointee. Both Wong and Sherrill are solid moderate votes on a board that is more closely aligned with the San Francisco mayor’s agenda than any in perhaps the past 25 years.

Lurie does not control the PAC, but it was created by two of his allies, Adam Clemmer and Alec Perkins. That duo also helmed the pro-Lurie PAC in 2024 that took in $1 million from the mayor’s mother. Koum in 2024 gave $500,000 to that PAC, and gave Lurie another $500 directly.

With Koum’s donation, the S.F. Believes PAC has amassed $1,077,000 from just 13 individuals, most of them investors and finance executives.

Koum is not the only billionaire bankrolling the mayor’s agenda: Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist and chairman of the San Francisco Standard, and cryptocurrency billionaire Chris Larsen and his wife have collectively given $4.4 million to Lurie’s electoral efforts this year. The bulk of that is going toward an ambitious charter-reform effort to increase mayoral power.

Lurie’s office relayed questions to treasurers of the PAC, who declined to comment.

JOE RIVANO BARROSEXECUTIVE EDITOR

joe.rivanobarros@missionlocal.com

Joe is the executive editor at Mission Local. He is an award-winning journalist whose coverage focuses on politics, campaign finance, Silicon Valley, and criminal justice. He received a B.A. at Stanford University for political science in 2014. He was born in Sweden, grew up in Chile, and moved to Oakland when he was eight. You can reach him on Signal @jrivanob.99.More by Joe Rivano Barros

Join the Conversation

4 Comments

Aimee Erlichsays:April 14, 2026, 5:34 pm at 5:34 pmI am sorry, but Mayor Lurie should not be accepting that money.+2-1votes. Sign in to voteReply
Mission Almost Localsays:April 15, 2026, 7:24 am at 7:24 amLurie has no control over this. PAC’s cannot coordinate with the candidates they support, nor can he control who donates to PAC’s that support him, or refuse that money. Anyone can set up a PAC and take money from whomever they like (within federal guidelines).+10votes. Sign in to voteReply
marcossays:April 14, 2026, 5:29 pm at 5:29 pmSF DOGE.+1-1votes. Sign in to voteReply
Chazsays:April 14, 2026, 10:19 pm at 10:19 pmThe Lurie tenure is getting darker and darker.+1-1votes. Sign in to voteReply
h. brownsays:April 15, 2026, 1:59 pm at 1:59 pmYour comment is awaiting moderation.JB (mind if I call you that?), The goal has always been to figure out ways to get the average voter to vote against their own best interests and Lurie’s Lords have gotten more successful with their efforts as time passes. They have such a lock on the local media that charlatans like Scott Wiener get thousands of votes from renters he’s caused to be evicted and property owners whose rights he has pruned to near zilch. People just don’t know and that is not accidental. Want to get rid of a Reformer DA ? Stage a Recall in a guaranteed scant turnout Special election and outspend his supporters ten to one. There’s a book like ‘City for Sale’ in here and you and Jim Sutton
How dementia patients taught me to live with less regret | James Lee | TEDxSouth Congress