What Do the Koch Brothers Want?

The brothers didn’t support Trump in his 2016 campaign, although they praised his efforts to cut taxes and regulations. After Charles Koch criticized Trump’s approach to trade and his leadership style during a donor retreat in 2018, the president tweeted that the brothers “have become a total joke in real Republican circles.”

Their political network by then was backing away from reflexive support for Republicans, such as then-Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, who arguably strayed too far from the brothers’ vision of free-market orthodoxy. Cramer nevertheless beat an incumbent Democrat, Heidi Heitkamp, for a Senate seat.

Days after the midterms that year, when the Democrats retook the House despite millions in Koch spending for Republicans, the network called for a more bipartisan focus on what unites Americans with work on criminal-justice reform, immigration and promotion of free trade

“A lot of billionaires make their contribution and their name is on the board of directors, but they have no intention of showing up to the meetings,” said New York philanthropist Adrienne Arsht. “He came to meetings. He was always hands-on.”

Arsht said David Koch never acted like Manhattan’s wealthiest person.

“He was most understated,” she said. “There was nothing about anything that he did that made you think he was anything but a man from Kansas.”

But the Koch brothers played a massive role in politics, helping shape state and federal policy.

Confounding Critics

Characterizing himself as a social liberal, David Koch was pro-choice when it came to abortion and supportive of same-sex marriage and stem-cell research. Further confounding liberal critics, the brothers supported efforts to free nonviolent prisoners and overhaul sentencing, changes they argued would reduce recidivism, save taxpayers money and remove barriers to opportunity.

“He believed he had a responsibility to a world that had given him so many opportunities to succeed,” his family said in a statement Friday. “David’s philanthropic dedication to education, the arts and cancer research will have a lasting impact on innumerable lives.”