Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is definitely not running for president, has hired top Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pollster and strategist Joel Benenson, Politico reports. Because Zuckerberg is not running for president, Benenson's work is restricted to research for Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's charity organization; Zuckerberg and Chan have promised to donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares, an estimated $45 billion, to charity.
While Benenson was the chief strategist to Clinton's 2016 campaign, the Benenson Strategy Group does do a lot of work for non-profit groups, including conducting a recent mental wellness survey on behalf of Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation. That being said, Zuckerberg, who is not running for president, has also hired in the past year Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe; former communications adviser to one-time vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Joe Biden aide, Amy Dudley; and the head of former President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, Ken Mehlman.
Zuckerberg is also touring the United States with the goal of meeting ordinary Americans, some of whom happen to live in Iowa, the first state to vote in the primaries, and Ohio, which has been carried by every winning presidential candidate since 1960. And while he isn't running for president, Zuckerberg also recently toured a Ford factory in Detroit just because.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Some of you have asked if this challenge means I'm running for public office," Zuckerberg wrote last spring. "I'm not."
-
Massacre in the favela: Rio’s police take on the gangsIn the Spotlight The ‘defence operation’ killed 132 suspected gang members, but could spark ‘more hatred and revenge’
-
The John Lewis ad: touching, or just weird?Talking Point This year’s festive offering is full of 1990s nostalgia – but are hedonistic raves really the spirit of Christmas?
-
Codeword: November 15, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
