Tom Steyer is a Democratic candidate for California governor who is pledging to raise taxes and expand public services. Mr. Steyer, a former hedge fund manager who lives in San Francisco, ran for president in 2020 but has never held elected office. Forbes has estimated his fortune at $2.4 billion.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Steyer, 68.
1. He broke records for campaign spending in a California race. Mr. Steyer has given his campaign more than $216 million, a record for a California governor’s race. He spent $200 million on television commercials, which have flooded the airwaves for months, according to AdImpact. The blitz has helped Mr. Steyer become a serious contender after dwelling toward the bottom of the polls late last year. The last time a candidate for California governor spent more than $100 million in personal wealth was in 2010, when Meg Whitman, a former eBay executive, gave her campaign $144 million. She lost to Jerry Brown.
2. He campaigned as a progressive outsider. Though he is a Democrat in a state run by Democrats, Mr. Steyer vowed to shake up the status quo. On almost every issue, he proposed significant changes, mostly through increasing taxes and expanding government programs. On health care, he supported a single-payer system run by the state. On education, he proposed making free preschool available to 3-year-olds. He said he would break up utility companies, like Pacific Gas & Electric, to lower electricity bills. To fund his agenda, Mr. Steyer said he wanted to raise taxes on corporations and billionaires.
3. He is a climate activist, but coal has helped fuel his wealth. Mr. Steyer founded Farallon Capital in 1986, and it has since grown to become one of the nation’s largest hedge fund companies. He left in 2012 to devote himself to progressive politics and climate activism. But investments in coal helped Mr. Steyer build his wealth. While Mr. Steyer led Farallon, the company invested in coal and financed coal projects, and it remains an important lender for the industry today, particularly in Australia. Though Mr. Steyer stepped down as Farallon’s chief executive, his financial records show that he never fully cut ties with the firm. Mr. Steyer’s campaign said that he asked Farallon to separate his funds from the company’s investments in fossil fuels.
4. He owns at least a dozen homes. Mr. Steyer talked a lot about California’s housing shortage during his campaign, promising to build one million new homes in four years, but not so much about his own real estate portfolio. It includes side-by-side mansions in San Francisco’s Sea Cliff neighborhood, a high-rise luxury apartment downtown, plus homes on the Marin County coast, Lake Tahoe and alongside Central Park in New York. Four of the houses are used by Mr. Steyer and his wife, his campaign said, while the others are occupied by family members or friends. He also bought several homes across 1,800 acres in Pescadero, south of San Francisco, to create a ranch that raises grass-fed cattle and promotes environmental stewardship. Ranch employees and their families live in the homes on that property, the campaign said.
5. Progressives are into him, even though he’s a billionaire. It might seem counterintuitive, but many groups who decry the income inequality chasm have endorsed the richest man in the race. Our Revolution, the organization founded by Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, to fight oligarchs, gave its support to Mr. Steyer. So did the Sierra Club, Jane Fonda’s committee to fight climate change. Labor unions representing teachers, nurses and child care workers have endorsed him. His support for a single-payer health care system appeals to the California Nurses Association, while public employee labor unions appreciate his pledge to seek higher taxes on commercial property.
Danny Hakim contributed reporting.
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
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