In 2016, Delian Asporohouv was a liberal who voted for Hillary Clinton. In 2020, Delian shifted right and voted for Donald Trump. His journey and shift - or throughline moments - during that four-year period is fascinating to understand because it reveals some of the reasons why one of the most maligned and prosecuted figures in political history rose to presidential power in 2024.
(Note: CRT opens with a look back at the week’s news. Delian’s interview starts around 33:14)
Delian doesn’t consider himself super politically active. He does have a day job - actually two day jobs that keep him quite busy. He’s a Partner at Founders Fund and President and co-founder of Varda Space Industries, a space manufacturing company. But he does stay somewhat political. He co-founded the Hill and Valley Forum, which is hosting an event on April 30, 2025 in Washington DC. The Hill and Valley Forum is a bipartisan community of innovators and lawmakers. He’s also politically bold. In January 2020, he wore a MAGA hat for the entire month while going about his business in San Francisco. And in 2019, he ran the largest fundraising campaign for SF District Attorney, an experience that would become his first throughline moment.
Despite the unbearable prevalence of crime, said Delian, soft-on-crime lawyer Chesa Boudin was voted in as San Francisco District Attorney, an outcome that stunned him considering the other candidates were Democrats with a more common sense approach to keeping the city safe. Being against Boudin wasn’t an ideological issue, he said, it was a practical one, as he kept thinking: “My house keeps getting robbed; my car gets broken into. Let’s get someone better in!” Boudin became DA in 2019 but was recalled in 2022.
Crime wasn’t the only throughline moment for Delian. His dating life revealed some real ideological differences forming in society, particularly when it came to the definition of gender/sex and political governance. One person he dated was so far left she may have been a spy for the CCP, he quipped. (You’ll have to watch the show or listen to the podcast right around 43:00 for more on this.) He also found saying the word “partner” instead of “girlfriend” was a bit ridiculous. Then the censorship of even more words became a tell, especially when one software company changed the term “master” (referring to the master branch) to “main” in order to avoid being racist!
Delian and I first met in 2021, when he spoke at the first Culture, Religion & Technology event in Miami. At the time, I didn’t realize his views had shifted so dramatically. I say that because Delian grew up in a liberal home, went to high school and college with many liberal friends, and has a current friend group consisting mostly of liberals. It’s not surprising that his network is liberal since he does live in LA, which is predominantly progressive as 70% of voters supported Harris. And he lived in San Francisco for a time. While the LA Times observed in the fall of 2024 that SF is moving to the center, Kamala Harris received nearly 80% of the votes in SF and Marin County.
In this podcast, we talk about his experience with his journey toward becoming a Republican amid Democrats. Whether his journey influenced others. Importantly, whether there are more like him in the tech crowd, besides the ones already well-known!!!!
We also talk about his views on religion and how that evolved, especially having been born in Bulgaria, where religion was essentially outlawed. He talks about how being a father led him closer to believing in a God. Even science led him to become more religious as parts of the universe working so perfectly together seemed to require a higher power. He also talks about how kitesurfing 20-40 feet in the air can get him into a prayerful state of mind to meet with God.
Last but not least, we do talk about Varda and its impact on healthcare.
Enjoy.
You can also watch the episode on Rumble or YouTube. CRT is a look back at the prior week’s top news and interviews. It’s distributed on Voz Media and Vator. If you like the show, please follow bambi100 and Weoverme on X.
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