Reed Hastings: Bankrolling California’s Progressives… and Now, He’s Eyeing Newsom’s White House Run

Reed Hastings, the billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Netflix, and his wife, philanthropist Patricia “Patty” Quillin, have emerged as two of California’s most generous – and ideologically consistent – political donors.

Hastings built a fortune transforming a humble DVD-by-mail service into a global streaming behemoth, amassing billions that now fuel everything from charter-school expansion to higher-education gifts.

His wife Patty, a longtime advocate for social causes, complements his profile with a passion for systemic change. Together, this power couple has funneled tens of millions into education reform, racial justice initiatives, and, most notably, a sweeping vision of criminal justice “reform” that prioritizes decarceration, equity, and frankly, a disdain for traditional law enforcement.

Their latest enthusiasm? Gavin Newsom for president in 2028.

If their track record is any guide, this endorsement speaks volumes about the kind of leadership they believe America somehow desperately needs. It’s more of the same progressive playbook that has defined Newsom’s governance of California.

One might wonder whether the rest of the country is ready for that particular encore.

The couple’s wealth doesn’t just enable their activism; it supercharges it. With Netflix stock grants and a donor-advised fund overflowing with nine-figure contributions, Hastings and Quillin can move markets and mold policy conversations from afar.

While Hastings has long championed charter schools and poured over a billion dollars into educational causes, Quillin has taken the lead on justice issues, turning family philanthropy into a quiet but highly potent force reshaping California’s legal landscape. Their giving reflects their worldview that sees over-incarceration and systemic bias as the core problems, often sidelining concerns about deterrence and public safety.

At the heart of their criminal justice activism sits Smart Justice California, a Tides Advocacy project that Quillin has helped bankroll, steer, and sustain since its inception. With millions from Quillin and a tight circle of fellow wealthy donors, the group has lobbied aggressively for policies emphasizing rehabilitation, reduced prosecutions for low-level offenses, and a broader rethinking of policing.

Quillin personally dropped $1 million into the Smart Justice California Action Fund in 2022, providing critical resources during heated recall battles and legislative pushes. This wasn’t casual check-writing; it was strategic investment in a movement.

That movement, the “progressive prosecutor” wave, gained national momentum after 2020. Inspired by protests over policing and racial justice, organizations like Smart Justice and Real Justice PAC sought to elect district attorneys who would use their discretion to unwind what they viewed as overly punitive systems.

Hastings and Quillin’s support fit neatly into this national story, helping export California-style reforms to other cities while entrenching them at home.

The results, however, have been decidedly messy.

In Los Angeles, the couple backed George Gascón’s 2020 campaign with roughly $2.15 million between them, Quillin leading the charge as part of a broader wave from reform donors that helped unseat the more traditional incumbent.

Gascón’s agenda, as we know, was ambitious: ending cash bail for most misdemeanors and low-level felonies, diverting nonviolent cases away from prosecution, limiting sentencing enhancements, and creating new accountability measures for police.

These policies embodied the post-George Floyd ethos the Hastings family eagerly embraced.

In practice, Los Angeles saw notable spikes in property crimes and waves of retail theft; reduced consequences emboldened repeat offenders.

Supporters countered that the changes addressed “root” inequities; we pointed to emptied court dockets and frustrated residents as evidence of unintended consequences.

In San Francisco, Quillin’s network funneled over $115,000 through Smart Justice committees to defend Chesa Boudin against his 2022 recall. Boudin, the son of Weather Underground radicals, had campaigned on declining to seek maximum sentences for certain crimes, expanding diversion programs, and treating many offenses through a public-health rather than punitive lens.

While Boudin ultimately lost his fight amid voter frustration over visible disorder, open drug use, and smash-and-grab thefts, the investment underscored the couple’s willingness to shield reform-minded prosecutors even when public sentiment turned sharply against them.

Quillin also chipped in to Real Justice PAC, the national outfit co-founded by activist Shaun King that backs similar “progressive” candidates, with donations totaling tens of thousands across election cycles.

Hastings remained somewhat in the background on these specific PAC gifts, content to let his wife’s passion for decarceration take center stage.

Beyond individual candidates, the pair poured millions into statewide ballot measures with a passion. They helped defeat tougher accountability and sentencing proposals like November, 2020’s Proposition 20, they backed parole expansions, championed risk-assessment tools to replace cash bail, and supported related measures on affirmative action and voting rights for parolees.

Quillin alone gave $2 million against Proposition 20, framing it as a regressive step. Supporters (including law enforcement, some business groups, and the “Keep California Safe” campaign) argued it would restore accountability, deter repeat theft, and help solve violent crimes. Quillin’s effort paid off.

These efforts aligned neatly with a national movement to elect DAs who treat incarceration as a reluctant last resort rather than a default tool.

California’s struggles with rampant retail theft, tent encampments, and urban disorder seemed to accelerate right alongside these policy shifts.

Hastings recently donated $2 million to Newsom’s Prop 50 redistricting efforts and just this week, he publicly declared himself a “big fan,” praising the governor as the Democrat uniquely positioned to “motivate both the left and the center” for a 2028 White House bid.

The timing is telling.

After years of championing Boudin, Gascón, and the broader anti-incarceration wave, viewing Newsom, who has presided over these very experiments, as presidential timber reveals a striking consistency in priorities.

George Soros’s funding tends to be larger in scale and more national/systemic (through PACs and foundations), while Hastings and Quillin provide high-impact, California-focused supplementation – often described as part of a small group of “four wealthy donors” driving state-level overhaul alongside Soros-backed entities. (Patty Quillin, Quinn Delaney, Elizabeth Simons and Kaitlyn Krieger, channeled $22 million toward criminal justice ballot measures and allied candidates the previous two years.)

Their efforts are mutually reinforcing: Soros lays the groundwork nationally, and donors like the Hastings family deliver decisive local blows in key races and ballot fights.

That Hastings and Quillin see Newsom as their ideal standard-bearer says everything. If their brand of radical progressivism on crime and justice serves as the litmus test, then elevating California’s governor to the national stage hardly bodes well for a country already weary of cities that feel increasingly ungovernable.

Their millions have already helped reshape one state in profound ways; the prospect of scaling that same vision nationwide should give even casual observers serious pause.

When your biggest fans are the very architects who funded the progressive prosecutor experiment through its most ambitious – and controversial – chapters, it’s worth asking precisely what version of “unity,” “justice,” and “futurism” they’re really purchasing for the rest of America.