The Daily Signal - Sergey Brin Turns Conservative After Funding Democrats for Over a Decade | Drew Allen

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

Tech billionaire Sergey Brin fled socialism in the Soviet Union as a child—only to spend years funding its modern version in California. For over a decade, he funneled millions into Democrat candidates and progressive policies that reshaped the state, while ordinary Californians dealt with the consequences. Only now, as those same policies come back to hit his own fortune in the form of a proposed billionaire tax, has Brin changed his tune.  With the tax man knocking on his door (and his new MAGA-aligned influencer girlfriend in the picture) he’s suddenly pouring money into the RNC and backing candidates like Steve Hilton, dropping tens of millions to stop the very system he helped build. The lesson is the same as it’s always been: “Socialism fails every single time it's tried, everywhere It's been tried. And the Golden State, California, is proving it again right now, in real time,” Drew Allen, Daily Signal Califonira Contributor, on today’s video commentary. 👉For more videos like this, subscribe to The Daily Signal’s YouTube channel and enable notifications to be alerted the second a new video drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Guy seven over the scene of what police are now calling a double homicide. For the first time, California Governor Gavin Newsom is publicly acknowledged that he is open to a run for the White House. In L.A., homeless has jumped 16% in a year. Half of Americans living on the streets are in California. Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, worth an estimated $270 billion. Well, he's finally come to the realization that California has become a socialist dystopia under one-party Democrat rule. He apparently attended a Christmas treehouse party hosted by fellow billionaire Chris Larson in Marin County. And according to multiple reports, Bryn pulled Governor Gavin Newsom aside into a side room and he told him straight up, he couldn't tolerate this so-called billionaire tax.

Right there in the heart of one of America's wealthiest on enclaves, Brent confronted the governor. Now look, I've been to Marin County myself just a few months ago. As a matter of fact, I spoke to a women's Republican group there about my book for Christ and Country, The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk. In Marin County, it's right there across the Golden Gate from San Francisco. And it's one of the richest counties in America with median household income, over $149,000, sky high education levels.

But wealth, of course, hasn't made Marin. moderate, it's made it deep, dark blue. It's one of the bluest counties in the country. For context, in 2024, Kamala Harris won Marin County with 80.6 percent to Trump's 16.7 percent. And Democrats outnumber Republicans there by three or four to one. So this isn't a struggling inner city area, obviously. It's scenic, it's affluent, it's packed with these tech executives, Hollywood types, limousine, liberal. of course, you know, the people who can afford to champion open borders, extreme climate rules, soft on crime policies, and gender ideology, because they live in one of the safest richest

bubbles in the country. And this is exactly where Sergey Brin, much like myself, stood up to Gavin Newsom right there in the belly of the beast. Now, Bryn's story is especially compelling because he's an immigrant, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Moscow. His family fled the Soviet Union in 1979 when he was just six years old. So Bren should know real socialism firsthand. Communism, as a matter of fact, the Soviet Union.

But there's a lesson here for all of us. Young men in particular, I hope you're paying attention, because men are heavily influenced by the women in their lives. Bren has been dating this MAGA influencer, Garalin, Gilbert Soto, I believe. leaves her name for over two years. And she's called Trump her bestie. She carries a clutch with President Trump's name on it.

And the New York Times, I assume, in their coverage of this, tried to paint her as a villain. But obviously, she's a hero. She has rescued Bryn from the darkness of liberalism. So, you know, anyway, it's no coincidence that Bryn's political awakening lines up with this relationship, right? But for 15 years, Bryn was a reliable Democrat. He donated to Obama to the DNC, same-sex marriage efforts, which failed in California, actually, but then were overturned by the Supreme Court. But he's given a climate cause. And we're talking about hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars.

But recently, he's seen the light, sort of. In May 2025, he gave $100,000 to the RNC. he's back candidates like Steve Hilton and the so-called moderate Democrat in the race for Governor Matt Mayhan. So he's poured $57 million into fighting this billionaire tax. And look, I'm thrilled he's changing. It's better late than never. But let's be honest, it's remarkable to me and to anybody watching, I think, that it took a maggot girlfriend and a direct threat to his own well for a Soviet-born immigrant to finally recognize what the rest of us have seen for years, if not decades. Brin recently told the New York Times he fled socialism in 1979 and he knows the devastation it causes.

So where have you been the past 15 years, Sergey? You supported Obama in 2008 and 2012. What did you think Obamacare was if not the foundation for socialized medicine? Brother, Sergey, the rest of us didn't need a personal billionaire tax or a new girlfriend to figure it out. I mean, just look at the results of one party's socialized. socialist governance in California, Sergei. I mean, the highest state income tax in the nation at 13.3% plus this new wealth grab. We've got billions spent on homelessness, yet we still lead the country in street encampments, soft on crime policies that turned retail theft into an epidemic. We got crushing regulations on housing, on energy, on business. Hundreds of thousands of working families and companies are fleeing the state, including you now.

the middle class has been squeezed out while government grows and redistributes. Socialism. Textbook socialism. You punish success. You expand state control. You promise equity. And you deliver failure. Billionaires and billion dollar programs are right there next to 10 cities and boarded up stores.

More government in your health care, in your wallet, in your neighborhood, in your energy use. More rules. More redistribution. Less freedom. Less growth. That's the feature. of socialism. And again, Sergey Bren fled real socialism, communism, USSR, as a child.

But he helped fund American versions of it for over a decade. And only now, when the taxman comes for him, does he say this is too far? Again, better late than never. But California, and certainly myself, we didn't need another billionaire to wake up. The results have been screaming this warning for years. I mean, one party rules, or one party rule, the Democrat Party, in this case, plus heavy-handed socialist policies, it obviously doesn't create paradise. It creates exodus.

Productive people vote with their feet or their wallets. Texas and Florida are proving the opposite works, right? Lower taxes, fewer regulations, real growth. People are flocking there. And it's so tragic because California has it all. Perfect weather, innovation hubs, ports, talent, and socialist governance is squandering it. The Democratic Party is turning the golden state into a, what we all call a cautionary tale for the nation.

But here's the part that should alarm every Californian, not just the billionaires like Sergey, because recent reports confirmed this billionaire tax is, in fact, a Trojan horse. It is designed to give Sacramento politicians the power to tax everyone with just a two-thirds vote. So this measure, the billionaire tax, it's qualified for the November ballot after collecting over 1.5, million signatures, and it's sold as this painless one-time, 5% tax on roughly 200 ultra-wealthy Californians worth $1.1 billion or more. It's promising $100 billion for health care,

education, food aid, socialism. But buried in the fine print, if you care, Section 50310, that's where the poison pill is. And this poison pill lets the Democrat-controlled legislature amend the law later with a simple two-third super majority, as long as changes are, quote, consistent with and further the purposes of the original tax. So look, Democrats, they already hold veto-proof majorities. So the bar is very easy to clear. Today, it's billionaires. And tomorrow, they lower the threshold of millionaires.

They make the one-time tax annual. They expand wealth to hit homes, to hit retirement accounts, to hit small businesses or stock portfolios, your 401k. No new ballots are needed. There's no direct voter approval needed. Just Sacramento quietly expanding the net. And this, of course, is how socialism always advances. You promise to punish the rich to win emotional support from frustrated voters.

And then you redefine rich until it includes doctors, small business owners, retirees, and middle class families, people like me. And so, yes, in fact, this does appear to be a Trojan horse for permanent government control over private wealth. And Sergey Brin, to his credit, finally sees it, and that's why he's fighting it with tens of millions of dollars. And he fled socialism once. And now he's watching it imported through the back door.

And it's wrapped in this, you know, fair share rhetoric. But Sergey, brother, the rest of us don't need and didn't need a $270 billion fortune to recognize the pattern. We have watched one party rule deliver the highest taxes. the worst homelessness and record outflows. So, you know, voters better get with a program and reject this Trojan horse in November because once Sacramento gets the power to tax everyone with a two-thirds majority, the Exodus is not going to stop at billionaires.

It'll be anyone who can leave. And the ones left behind will foot the bill for the failure. So, you know, I firmly believe California can still be saved. Some of your rolling your eyes. But it's not going to be obviously by doubling down on the same failed ideas. Socialism fails every single time it's tried, everywhere it's been tried, and the Golden State, California is proving it again right now in real time. This is Drew Allen with the Daily Signal.