Cisco's John Chambers Votes For Hillary Clinton

For the first time in his life, John Chambers, Cisco's executive chairman, and former CEO, voted for a Democrat in the U.S. presidential election.

"This will be the first time in my lifetime I’m voting for a Democrat," said Chambers, speaking on in front of thousands of attendees inside the MEO Arena in Portugal on Tuesday at Web Summit 2016. "I voted for Hillary Clinton. I’ve already voted."

"I hope that the new leader, whoever they are, and I hope that it will be Hillary, will bring our country back to participation by all groups and talk about how technology will enable not just ten percent of our population, but all of our population," said Chambers. "We'll see if that happens or not."

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Chambers identified himself as a moderate Republican, which is an "endangered species," he said.

"I support both Democrats and Republicans on many issues. I’m more interested in where they [stand] on technology," said Chambers. "I think Hillary has the best chance of getting America back on track. We haven't had a pay raise in 15 years that's stuck. And that's why you see a lot of America angry."

Chambers is not the only Republican technology leader who voted for the Democratic nominee.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, a lifelong Republican and fund-raising supporter of the Republican Party, has been vocal in supporting Clinton during the 2016 Presidential Campaign once Donald Trump was named the Republican nominee. Whitman went so far to co-hosted a campaign event for Clinton in September in Silicon Valley.

Chambers became president and CEO of Cisco in 1995 when the San Jose, Calif-based networking giant was pulling in $70 million in annual revenue. By the end of his 20-year tenure, Cisco reported revenue of more than $49 billion for the fiscal year 2015, before handing the reigns off to Chuck Robbins.

Chambers was a keynote speaker at the Web Summit taking place in Lisbon, Portugal from Nov. 7 to Nov. 10.