Kansas billionaire Charles Koch tells WSJ he regrets causing political division
Wichita billionaire and GOP megadonor Charles Koch says his partisanship was a mistake, telling The Wall Street Journal that he believes it caused unneeded division.
Koch’s profile in the newspaper comes just ahead of his new book, “Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World” to be published next week.
With his late brother David, Koch built a conservative empire of think tanks and affiliated political organizations that pumped billions into right-wing candidates and causes, such as the Tea Party. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former Kansas Congressman and possible contender for the 2024 presidential nomination, has been a recipient of Koch contributions.
But in his book, Koch admits that he has come to regret his political partiality, which he believes caused undesirable dissension.
“Boy, did we screw up!” Koch writes in his book, according to the Wall Street Journal. “What a mess!”
Koch, 85, did not say whom he voted for — Joe Biden or Donald Trump — but did acknowledge Biden as the president-elect.
He did not donate to Trump during the 2020 election after disagreeing with the president on certain policy issues.
“I congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their victory,” Koch told the Wall Street Journal in an email. “I look forward to finding ways to work with them to break down the barriers holding people back, whether in the economy, criminal justice, immigration, the COVID-19 pandemic, or anywhere else.”
Koch, who heads Koch Industries and is one of the 25 richest people in the world, according to Forbes, told the paper he is attempting to work with Democrats, saying he feels there is common ground on issues like criminal justice reform and immigration.
Regardless, his spending habits didn’t appear to change much this year. The Wall Street Journal, citing Center for Responsive Politics data, said Koch’s PAC donated $2.8 million to Republican candidates compared to $221,000 for Democrats during the 2020 election cycle.
Koch told the Wall Street Journal he hopes to be a unifier in future days.
“I hope we all use this post-election period to find a better way forward,” Koch said to the newspaper in an email. “Because of partisanship, we’ve come to expect too much of politics and too little of ourselves and one another.”
Critics were skeptical of Koch’s mea culpa.
Journalist Jane Mayer, who had written extensively about the Kochs, tweeted: “Oops says Billionaire Political Donor Charles Koch in new book. He now regrets corrupting American democracy, along with the planet.”
