Billionaire Tom Steyer wants to take on the rich in run for California governor
Tom Steyer, the $2.4 billion hedge-fund founder who once bet on fossil fuels, now campaigns as the billionaire who will tax other billionaires, a contradiction California voters have seen before.
Tom Steyer is running for California governor by positioning himself as a class traitor. The Democrat whose personal fortune sits at $2.4 billion promises higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations while courting progressive groups that insist billionaires should not exist. He has spent lavishly on his campaign, nearly 30 times what his nearest Democratic rival has spent on ads, yet his record of fossil-fuel investments and self-funded political projects leaves critics calling the whole thing performance.
Steyer likes the line: “I’m the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires.” He gives only tenuous support to an actual billionaires’ tax on the November ballot. During a recent debate, former Rep. Katie Porter reminded him that he “made the billions that you're using to fund your campaign off fossil fuels.” His reply: business groups are spending against him, “That's how you know I'm for real.”
The contradictions run deep. Steyer founded Farallon Capital Management in 1986, built it into one of the world’s largest hedge funds with stakes in oil and coal, then walked away in 2012 to launch NextGen America. He spent $5 million in 2010 to defend California’s greenhouse-gas law and has poured more than $62 million into state ballot measures, including a failed 2020 effort to preserve the elimination of cash bail. Republican strategist Rob Stutzman calls him “a self-promoter with his dollars,” pointing to last year’s ad for a redistricting measure pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in which Steyer’s only role was writing the check.
Progressive backers have decided he is “one of the good ones.” Our Revolution, founded by Bernie Sanders, endorsed him for championing single-payer health care, breaking up utility monopolies, and defending the state’s cap-and-trade program. State Assemblyman Alex Lee, chair of the progressive caucus, swallowed his hesitation about backing a billionaire because Steyer “didn’t go off and become Zuckerberg level.” Major environmental groups have also lined up behind him.
Business isn’t buying the act. Pacific Gas & Electric spent $10 million opposing him after Steyer vowed to “break up utility monopolies” to cut electricity rates. The California Chamber of Commerce warns his agenda “will cost billions, driving investment out of California and worsening the state’s affordability crisis.” Steyer’s three big issues, climate, cost of living, and Trump, come with plans light on specifics beyond protecting existing programs that have done little to tame housing costs or energy prices.
In 2020 Steyer spent $24 million in South Carolina alone chasing voters of color and finished third, then dropped out. He once planned to drop $100 million on that presidential bid; rivals mocked the billionaire decrying billionaires. California may be treating him more kindly for now, but the gap between his rhetoric and his résumé remains the same. Whether money and progressive endorsements finally convert into votes in the June 2 primary is the only question left.
Original reporting: ABC News.
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