Tom Steyer, co-chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, speaks during the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference in Miami Beach, Florida, US, on Monday, March 6, 2023.<\/p>\n
Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Billionaire businessman and activist\u00a0Tom Steyer<\/a>, who once self-financed an unsuccessful\u00a0White House\u00a0campaign and spent his own money advocating for President\u00a0Donald\u00a0Trump<\/a>‘s\u00a0impeachment, has launched his bid for\u00a0California\u00a0governor as a Democrat.<\/p>\n The 68-year-old’s tremendous wealth immediately makes him a notable contender in a\u00a0free-for-all<\/a>\u00a0that includes more than a half-dozen\u00a0Democrats\u00a0and two\u00a0Republicans\u00a0competing in an all-party June primary, with the top two vote-getters advancing to a November general election to succeed term-limited Gov.\u00a0Gavin Newsom<\/a>.<\/p>\n Steyer announced his candidacy<\/a> with a pledge to improve economic conditions and by framing his political record as friendly to consumers, working-class voters and\u00a0the environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Californians deserve a life they can afford,” he said in a video released Wednesday morning. “But the Californians who make this state run are being run over by the cost of living.”<\/p>\n The approach puts Steyer on a collision course with other candidates like progressive Congresswoman\u00a0Katie Porter, former\u00a0Los Angeles\u00a0Mayor\u00a0Antonio Villaraigosa\u00a0and former\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Health and Human Services Secretary\u00a0Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n Read more CNBC politics coverage<\/p>\n At one time, Porter was viewed as a top contender but the contest is now seen as wide open. Steyer’s wealth could give him an advantage in reaching voters through television and digital advertising in an expansive state with nearly 40 million people and multiple media markets.<\/p>\n Steyer nodded to his wealth Wednesday, noting his business enterprises made “billions of dollars.” But he also sounded populist tones.<\/p>\n “The richest people in America think that they earned everything themselves,” he said, before dismissing that notion with an expletive for bovine excrement. “That’s so ridiculous.”<\/p>\n Steyer said he would “make corporations pay their fair share again,” and his campaign cited his previous work on ballot initiatives with similar aims. Steyer was a leading advocate for a 2012 ballot initiative that made it harder for corporations to avoid certain taxes. The new revenue was steered to energy improvements in the state’s public schools.<\/p>\n In other referendum work, Steyer helped lead the 2016 campaign that yielded a\u00a0$2\u00a0per-pack tax hike on tobacco products. The money was steered to state health care programs, including tobacco-prevention efforts. And Steyer was a top opponent of a 2010 ballot initiative that would have rolled back\u00a0California’s\u00a0clean air and climate law, which has been viewed as a national standard on climate policy.<\/p>\n Steyer spent millions of his own money touring the country and pushing for\u00a0Trump’s impeachment during the Republican president’s first term. He then ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, spending more than\u00a0$200 million\u00a0of his fortune and receiving no pledged delegates. After distant finishes in the\u00a0Iowa\u00a0caucuses and\u00a0New Hampshire\u00a0primary, Steyer doubled-down with an expensive push in\u00a0South Carolina, only to finish a distant third behind eventual nominee and President\u00a0Joe Biden\u00a0and\u00a0Vermont\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders. Steyer then ended his presidential bid, and he financially supported Biden’s reelection in 2024 before the Democrat bowed out in favor of then-Vice President\u00a0Kamala Harris, another Californian.<\/p>\n