Tom Steyer, the hedge fund billionaire turned climate activist, has committed to giving away his money . Over the past seven months, he pared down his vast fortune by spending more than $215 million on an unsuccessful bid for California governor.
With ballots still being counted on Wednesday, Steyer had won just under 23% of the vote, trailing Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, who will advance to the November general election, according to Decision Desk HQ .
“I wasn’t born a billionaire, I won’t die a billionaire, and I’ll spend the rest of my life working alongside you to dismantle a system that only benefits billionaires,” Steyer said in a lengthy statement conceding the race. Steyer has a net worth of about $5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Steyer’s spending spree made California’s gubernatorial contest the most expensive in history , according to AdImpact. His geyser of cash flowed to local television stations, social-media influencers and a small army of consultants, including the political campaign group founded by Morris Katz, the strategist behind Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in New York City.
The bulk of Steyer’s spending — more than $155 million — went to Debra Schommer Media Group. Much of that was passed through to large advertising buys, according to campaign-finance filings.
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A onetime financial titan turned leftist firebrand, Steyer pitched himself as a progressive “class traitor” willing to tax billionaires, cap oil-refinery profits and break up electric-utility monopolies. Previously, Steyer spent $342 million on his unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign that failed to win any delegates.
His platform, including support for single-payer healthcare, earned the backing of Our Revolution, the PAC founded by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. But his campaign was dogged by criticism of his past investments in private prisons and coal development during his time as head of Farallon Capital, the hedge fund he founded.
Business interests lined up to counter Steyer’s spending with tens of millions of dollars in attack ads, many funded by the state’s largest utility, PG&E Corp., and the California Chamber of Commerce, that sought to paint the billionaire as a phony.
Steyer applauded his campaign but acknowledged that his billionaire status may have also been a hindrance.
“People are fed up with a system rigged to benefit billionaires and leave them behind,” he said in his statement. “It’s why so many people voted for our platform. And it’s not lost on me that it’s also why so many people just couldn’t stomach voting for a billionaire. It’s hard to blame them.”