Mega-wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer and a services union with deep pockets announced a $10 million joint effort on Friday to derail Donald Trump’s GOP presidential candidacy.
Steyer’s political action committee, NextGen Climate, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are teaming up this election season to defeat Trump and elect his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
According to SEIU’s 2015 disclosures, the union bankrolled almost $70 million of campaign donations, campaign ads and get-out-the-vote efforts for President Barack Obama and other Democrats. The group also spent $28 million on Obama’s successful presidential bid in 2008.
SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said the group’s join venture with Steyer will help move the electorate away from “anti-black racism” and toward “environmental justice.”
“Stopping the party of Trump is our number one priority this year,” Steyer said. “Week after week, Trump continues his racist, xenophobic and hateful campaign for the highest elected office in America. Whether it’s on climate change, economic opportunity or racial justice, a Trump presidency would be a disaster for working families. We need to stop Dangerous Donald.”
Steyer, who made the bulk of his billions as a hedge fund manager with Farallon Capital, railed Thursday against Trump’s pick as running mate, former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, calling the governor an enemy to the gay and lesbian community.
“Mike Pence rose to national prominence with his support of an anti-LGBT bill in Indiana,” Steyer said. “Now Donald Trump has resurrected his career, reaching to the very bottom of the apple barrel to find someone to match his own record of intolerance and bigotry.”
Steyer has been on the warpath against Trump since the billionaire started making inroads during the Republican primaries. He released a televised ad in May prior to California’s primary elections, imploring that state’s citizens not to vote for the real estate tycoon and former reality TV star. “That’s not America. We’re all Californians. It’s time to speak out. Please register,” Steyer said in the ad. He added: “And vote.”
The California-based environmentalist expressed his support for Clinton’s presidential bid in June, telling his Twitter followers that Clinton is the best the country has to offer.
“Hillary Clinton is an experienced leader who will lead us to victory because she embodies the best values of our country. She will put the needs of working families first. She will be fearless in her pursuit of solutions to the most urgent challenges we face,” and she will “move us rapidly towards becoming “the clean energy superpower of the 21st century,” Steyer said in a press statement on Twitter.
NextGen Climate, a group Steyer uses to fund liberal movements, announced a $25 million campaign in April encouraging young people to support and vote for green energy candidates in the November 2016 election.
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