--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: David Koch and Charles Koch by Karl Rove: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48034eb4ea1f14ad/69868c1755a859454aa80790/koch-brothers-charles-david-time-100-feat-crop.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 23, 2014 # David Koch and Charles Koch by Karl Rove  NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 27: Oil heir David Koch is photographed for New York Magazine on October 27, 2008 in New York City. Published image. (Photo by Henry Leutwyler/Contour by Getty Images) \*\*\* Local Caption \*\*\* NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 27: Oil heir David Koch is photographed for New York Magazine on October 27, 2008 in New York City. Published image. (Photo by Henry Leutwyler/Contour by Getty Images) \*\*\* Local Caption \*\*\*D. Koch: Henry Leutwyler—Contour/Getty Images; C. Koch: Jamie Kripke—Corbis Outline David and Charles Koch are patriots. By grit, persistence and hard work, they built a $100 billion-a-year business that employs tens of thousands. They give generously to medical research, the arts, education, think tanks and science. They care deeply about the values that make success in America possible — free markets, freedom, limited government and competition. This has led them to the political arena, where they give tens of millions and raise hundreds more to back candidates and causes. For this, they have been excoriated by the left, while the left remains hypocritically quiet when George Soros, Tom Steyer and other left-of-center rich spend to influence politics. The Kochs have answered abuse with courage, giving encouragement to others on the center-right to get into the fight. Bless them for all they do and all the liberals they send into orbit. _Rove, a former senior adviser to George W. Bush, founded American Crossroads_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/71008/david-koch-and-charles-koch-2014-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/71008/david-koch-and-charles-koch-2014-time-100/"},"headline":"David Koch and Charles Koch","datePublished":"2014-04-23T22:53:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T22:59:26.854Z","description":"Billionaire activists driving conservative politics","url":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/71008/david-koch-and-charles-koch-2014-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48034eb4ea1f14ad/69868c1755a859454aa80790/koch-brothers-charles-david-time-100-feat-crop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48034eb4ea1f14ad/69868c1755a859454aa80790/koch-brothers-charles-david-time-100-feat-crop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/71008/david-koch-and-charles-koch-2014-time-100/","name":"David Koch and Charles Koch"}}]}] ```