Democratic candidate Tom Steyer’s poll numbers are rising. Will he catch on in NC?
Amid rising in polls in South Carolina, Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer kicked off a weekend Carolinas swing Friday in Charlotte.
Steyer, 62, spoke to groups of Latinos, African Americans and women ahead of a planned Charlotte town hall meeting. He’s scheduled to campaign in South Carolina after marching in Saturday’s Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Charlotte.
At one stop he urged people not to look at him as just a billionaire hedge-fund manager.
“I’m a different person than that two-dimensional stereotype,” he told about 40 black leaders at Tupelo Honey.
This week Steyer, a billionaire businessman, was one of six candidates on the debate stage in Iowa. That was largely on the basis of polling results in South Carolina and Nevada. A Fox News poll this month found his support in South Carolina at 15% — second only to former Vice President Joe Biden — and in Nevada at 12%.
Steyer has vastly outspent his rivals in the two states, according to Advertising Analytics. In South Carolina alone, it reported, he’s spent $14.1 million. (In North Carolina a recent poll found him at 3%.)
But Steyer told African American leaders, “I’m rising for a very simple reason.”
“I think we have a broken government,” he said. “It’s been bought by corporations. For a decade I’ve been taking on corporations.”
He touted himself as “a grassroots person.”
“I believe the way you change (perceptions) is by people seeing you and seeing what you’re about,” he said. “Everybody’s wondering, ‘What are you about’ and ‘Can you beat Trump’?”
At Tupelo Honey, Steyer said he’s the only candidate who has made climate change his top priority.
“I’ll declare a state of emergency on Day One,” he said.
He also promised to “rebuild” America with a program that not only would improve infrastructure but provide jobs. “This is going to be the biggest union job program in American history,” he said.
He also said he supports reparations for African Americans, including $125 billion for historically black colleges, and a “living wage.” He supports term limits for members of Congress.
When community activist Lucille Puckett asked Steyer about gun violence and recounted how her son was gunned down in front of her in 2016, Steyer bent over and gave her a long hug.
Gun manufacturers are a top example of corporate influence, he said. He supports expanded background checks, registering gun owners and a ban on assault weapons.
Some in the crowd already were supporting him. NAACP President Corine Mack said she backs him for his environmental stand.
Others came to hear what he had to say.
“Some of the things I heard, I like,” Mark Jerrell, a Mecklenburg commissioner, said as he stood in line to meet Steyer. “I have a lot more research to do. But it won’t stop me from getting a picture.”
This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 6:07 PM.
