Californians couldn’t escape billionaire Tom Steyer’s political ads – during news broadcasts, sitcoms, or sporting events; on streaming services, YouTube, influencers’ social media feeds, or their mailboxes. I mean the Puppy Bowl.
Despite spending a record-breaking $216 million of his fortune during his run for governor, the Democrat failed to win enough votes in last week’s primaries to advance to the November general election to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Money isn’t everything, although it obviously helps,” said Andrea Godfrey Flynn, a marketing professor at the University of San Diego. “It gave Steyer a big boost. … But there were a lot of other things in play that probably weren’t enough.”
Steyer, a hedge fund founder turned environmental activist, polled 1% just before he entered the gubernatorial race in November, according to a survey by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.
He surged in subsequent votes, scoring 19% in the same poll just before the June 2 primary, putting Steyer in contention for one of the top two spots in the race to advance to the November election. But then he hit a wall, and on Tuesday, it was official that he failed to advance.
Steyer sent an email to his supporters on Tuesday thanking them for their efforts to support his campaign, endorsements and votes.
“Together, we fought for a California that belongs to the people who keep it running every day, and we insisted that they should not fix a system that protects corporate profits at the expense of working people,” he wrote. “I’m proud of how we’ve never lowered our standards or lowered our vision of what California can and should be.”
He proudly pointed out that large companies such as Chevron and Meta are spending a lot of money to oppose his request, saying that the tens of millions of dollars spent to attack him show the flaws in the election process. And he acknowledged that may be part of the reason why some voters are hesitant to vote for the billionaire.
“I’m proud of the enemies we made,” said Steyer. “This campaign has proven that business as usual depends on politics as usual, and there is no turning back. We must continue to fight for a system where democracy works for the people of California, not corporations – and where you don’t have to be a millionaire to run on one payer, or to break up monopolies, or to call out a corrupt system when you see it benefiting billions.”
As of Tuesday evening, Steyer received more than 1.9 million votes out of more than 9 million, trailing two candidates who will appear in the November election: Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, and Democrat Xavier Becerra, an elected official who recently served in President Biden’s cabinet. Steyer trailed second-place finisher Hilton by just over 200,000 votes.
Steyer quickly endorsed Becerra, whom he had attacked in the closing weeks of the campaign as seen in companies doing business before the governor.
California has a history of failing to fund itself. Former Northwest Airlines chairman Al Checchi spent more than $40 million of his own money on an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1998, which broke records at the time.
More than a decade later, former EBay CEO Meg Whitman spent $144 million of her fortune in her bid for governor of California, setting a new national record for spending in a state election. He won the GOP nomination but lost the general election.
This year’s gubernatorial race is not the first time Steyer has spent a lot of money to run for office. In 2020, he spent $342 million on a brief, unsuccessful presidential campaign.
Sherri Sadler, a veteran communications buyer based in Los Angeles, said Steyer’s 2026 flood was remarkable.
“I could literally see his spots that were nauseating,” she said. “They left nothing behind.”
Sadler worked for Steyer in the final weeks of his presidential bid and organized Rick Caruso’s $50 billion in advertising during his unsuccessful 2022 Los Angeles mayoral campaign.
He believes that Steyer has hit the nail on the head because voters who are attracted to the ads end up feeling that the candidate is trying to buy their love.
“It’s one thing to give me a message that I can hear, if they’re just trying to buy my vote, that sounds different to me,” he said, adding that Steyer’s wealth undermines his platform, which includes support for tax increases on billionaires. “That’s my gut.” And I feel like that’s what happened to us with Caruso and maybe why he didn’t run for governor this year.
Steyer, 68, made his fortune by founding a hedge fund that includes investments in fossil fuels, private prisons and other businesses that are controversial among Democrats. He told the voters that he left the company 14 years ago, leaving a lot of money on the table, because it was not compatible with his behavior. Steyer added that he and his wife are committed to giving away most of their wealth before they die.
And unlike many wealthy self-financers, Steyer didn’t jump into the campaign as a political neophyte who thought his business skills would translate into a successful elected official.
Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, have been donating to the Democratic Alliance for a long time, but for more than a decade, they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on liberal causes such as fighting climate change, mobilizing young voters, promoting the impeachment of President Trump, opposing the effort of oil companies to suspend California’s environmental standards, increasing the state’s tobacco tax last year and supporting last year’s state tax. Trump.
Darry Sragow, a veteran Democratic strategist who advises Checchi, said Steyer’s focus on such types has the potential to resonate with voters who often question the integrity and motives of the wealthy.
“Tom Steyer did a good job in that, because if you are going to overcome that doubt, it is very helpful for the candidate to show that he has actually been involved in the field of public policy and politics for a long time,” said Sragow.
Assemblyman Isaac G. Bryan (D-Los Angeles), who supported Steyer, said he proposed proposals against his personal interests, such as the proposed billionaire tax that is expected to appear on the November ballot.
“The interesting thing is, Tom Steyer is also the only person who has talked about changing campaign funds and wanting to get money out of politics, including his own money, to give power back to the people and publicly fund the election,” Bryan said after Steyer’s rally near downtown LA on May 31.
Former Orange County District Attorney Katie Porter and State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also campaigned to limit the influence of corporate PAC money on elections, or to use publicly funded elections in California. Porter often criticized Steyer for running as a “change agent” while using the millions he made from oil and gas investments.
“You’ve paid the lowest tax rate in this category but you’ve made billions to fund your campaign by getting rid of fossil fuels,” he told Steyer during an April 28 debate in Claremont.
Political experts argue that messages that seem to contradict a candidate’s background, as well as drowning voters with endless ads, can be confusing and look bad to voters.
“It can be a huge burden on voters when they get to a point where they don’t like it anymore,” Flynn said.
Despite Steyer’s basic argument that his wealth means he is invisible, he said voters may not be able to reconcile the billionaire’s ability to understand or empathize with the needs of the average Californian.
“Messages are still a big factor,” Flynn said. “I want to know [about] how credible was it to the voters – can you trust a billionaire to really care about accessibility, someone who makes money working with a business or in business to not care about special things?”
When Steyer campaigned as a liberal on the left, he failed to become a front-runner. Steyer has the support of about 35% of voters who identify as liberal and Becerra has the support of 37%, according to a May Berkeley poll.
After speaking to UCLA College Democrats on the eve of the primary, Steyer said that no matter what happens in the primary, he will remain involved in politics, even though he will not run for president in 2028.
“I will continue to fix these problems, because I have been working full time on these problems for 14 years,” said Steyer. “There’s no question about what I’m going to do. How I do it is a little bit in the air.”
Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
