Shy of literally getting yourself off, there’s very little that’s as onanistic as speculating about whether or not Mark Zuckerberg is going to run for president. Naturally, this means doing so has become sort of a ritual among commentators on Twitter, Facebook, and other esteemed websites. I’m not sitting in judgment. I (and various other technology writers) happen to think he’s not planning on running, at least not in 2020, but even in doing so we’re still taking part in the speculation.
These will-he-or-won’t-he discussions have become more frequent as Zuckerberg’s ” personal challenge” of visiting and meeting people from all 50 states by the end of 2017 has taken him to politically significant places like Ohio and Iowa, where he’s had tightly controlled visits with locals that result in stilted posts on his Facebook page. Zuckerberg has repeatedly said he isn’t running, but he could always change his mind. Meanwhile, the theory he might be thinking about running has started to inflect (to put it politely) stories like one Politico published on Wednesday, which declared “Zuckerberg hires Clinton Pollster Joel Benenson.”
It’s a titillating headline, but the reality is much more boring. Benenson isn’t employed directly by Zuckerberg, his polling and market research firm was retained by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan, his wife, started CZI at the end of 2015 as a vehicle for their philanthropic endeavors, and a spokesperson for the organization told CNN Benenson’s research would be in various scientific and policy goals. That isn’t terribly unusual: Hart Research, another polling firm that does a lot of work with Democratic politicians, has done research for The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation a number of timesover the past decade.
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