Elections

Does Left-Wing Billionaire Tom Steyer Plan On Trumping Dems In 2020?

(Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Chris White Tech Reporter
Font Size:

Democratic mega donor Tom Steyer is signaling he might be considering taking a crack at the White House in 2020, Politico reported Monday.

The billionaire’s decision to pivot from discussing local and state politics in California to talking more broadly about American politics has prompted the media to report that Steyer might be looking to take on President-elect Donald Trump.

Steyer, who earned most of his money working as a hedge fund manager with Farallon Capital, told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria  Sunday that Trump’s promise to pull out of the Paris agreement would hurt U.S. standing in the world.

“I think that if you move away from progressive energy policies and clean energy, you are putting the safety of Americans at risk,” he said. “You are putting the prosperity of Americans at risk — and you are putting the leadership of America in the world at risk.”

Steyer’s shift to national politics, as well as his decision to rethink entering the California gubernatorial race, means he may be mulling taking on Trump.

If the 2016 presidential election proved anything, Politico reported, it’s that Americans without any political experience can go along way — so long as they have social media gravitas and a lot of money to spend.

The political headwinds are not blowing in Steyer’s favor. Much of his nearly $70 million in political contributions in 2016 was all for naught.

Steyer, for instance, sunk tens of millions of dollars into efforts at getting young Americans to vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as pass various environmental ballot initiatives.

Clinton lost to Trump, and most of the money he spent on pushing environmental policies found little traction outside a narrow sliver of liberal activists.

Republicans should be licking their chops at a potential Steyer White House run, Jeremy Adler, communications director for American Rising Squared, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Apart from his warped agenda that would put millions of Americans out of work and increase energy costs for families exponentially,” Adler said, “a Tom Steyer run for the White House would finally give broad exposure to the absurdity of the Environmentalist Left’s policies.”

Steyer’s money heavily influenced the Democratic National Committee’s 2016 campaign platform on global warming and green energy, according to hacked Democratic National Committee emails uncovered by the conservative legal group Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal).

His political actions group — NextGen Climate — published a report in 2014 urging various Democratic candidates to create policies that will help the U.S. transition to 50 percent carbon-free energy by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050.

The new Democratic Party platform, meanwhile, wants the U.S. to be powered by 50 percent of clean energy sources over the next 10 years.

Follow Chris on Facebook and Twitter

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.