The head of Silicon Valley's largest startup accelerator is recruiting candidates for the 2018 California elections

pulse

July 12, 2017 4:37 PM

Sam Altman is looking to support potential candidates for the 2018 California elections, and he's got a number of platforms ready to champion.

The head of Silicon Valley's largest startup accelerator — a company responsible for launching Airbnb, Dropbox, and Zenefits, among others — announced on Wednesday his plans to back a range of candidates to run in 2018 California elections.

Y Combinator President Sam Altman, 32, has led the company since 2014. Since taking over, he has shown a keen interest in projects intended to foment civic and social change.

In the July 12 blog post, entitled "The United Slate," Altman outlined many of the platforms on which his potential candidates would run. Cost of living and education ranked as the most pressing, while healthcare and national defense also are towards the top, Altman told Business Insider.

Taxes will likely play a big role in Altman's plan. For housing, he pointed to a system in Vancouver known as the international buyer's tax, which places a huge tax on non-Canadian citizens buying real estate in Vancouver. Outsider real estate purchases are an epidemic in California's Bay Area, Altman said, because those people seldom spend time in California but eat up precious residential areas.

He also believes in single-payer healthcare and allocating 10% of the $600 billion defense budget to improving protections against cyberattacks. He said he has no plans to run for office himself.

"I'm hoping to find a set of candidates that believe in the same principles, that I can then help support and build technology for," Altman said.

Altman had hinted that he was looking for candidates back in April

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