In SC Tom Steyer spends millions of his own cash to prove he’s more than a billionaire
Tom Steyer says he isn’t bothered by the “billionaire” label that serves as his main descriptor in news reports and opponent attacks.
“Look, it’s sort of like talking about race,” the 62-year-old told The State Tuesday, when asked how his wealth complicates his candidacy in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary where some of his challengers are running on a pledge to fight corporate greed. “You gotta do it. People are thinking about this.”
Steyer’s wealth has become ammunition for his primary opponents and their supporters.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, took aim at Steyer and billionaires running for president when she dropped out, citing an inability to raise the amounts of cash needed to compete. In her exit message to supporters, Harris said, “I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign.”
At a stop in Charleston earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, took a shot at Steyer and another billionaire candidate, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, questioning why Harris was squeezed out while “billionaires buy their way in,” she told reporters.
Steyer has a response for those attacks.
For example: Yes, his hedge fund made money off of investments in fossil fuels, he says, but he also quit his job, changed his mind about the industry, and has since become an environmental activist, spending millions to fight Big Oil.
He’s a product of a mother who taught in New York public schools and a father who was a first generation college graduate, who stopped being a lawyer to enter World War II as a U.S. Naval officer, then prosecuted Nazis, he reminds voters on every stop.
“I’m actually a different person than the stereotype that they’re associating me with,” Steyer said.
Steyer has found himself a bit of an outlier in the 2020 field, a distinction marked, in part, by his quirky fashion sense: In South Carolina, he sported his signature blue-collared shirt, bright red plaid tie and favorite colorful belt bought from female artisans in Kenya.
On one hand, his wealth hasn’t translated into a surge in the polls that could threaten front-runner in the state’s primary, former Vice President Joe Biden. Steyer has only made about six visits to the state, none of which have included rallies like his other opponents have held. And when he does come to South Carolina, his campaign stops make it unclear the number of organic supporters versus genuine supporters who are now working on the campaign to help spread its message.
Yet the California businessman has built a genuine connection with some voters in South Carolina that’s becoming hard to ignore.
It’s showing in the polls. It’s showing up in his S.C. ground game of more than 60 paid staffers. And interviews with his most hardcore supporters in South Carolina reflect most are unfazed by their candidate’s net worth, which is $1.6 billion according to Forbes.
“I’ve never seen a white billionaire register with the black community the way he did, particularly the black millennials,” said Jason Belton, 31, a paid staffer who runs the Vision Walkers group that helps introduce black men to politics. “He just had them so engaged.”
Does Steyer have a path to win South Carolina’s “First in the South” presidential primary on Feb. 29?
It’s rocky, even with the ability to drop millions of dollars on TV, radio and digital advertisements.
“I don’t see him winning in South Carolina,” said state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg. “But, I see him doing a lot better than people give him credit for. Steyer, although a billionaire, has actually spent time building a movement, a more diverse movement.”
Steyer’s pricey investment
Thanks to their own money, the billionaire Democrats wanting to be president, in some ways, are winning the race for eyeballs.
Bloomberg and Steyer have both spent millions of their own money to hit the airwaves.
Outside of the state, Bloomberg — who Forbes reports is worth more than $50 billion — has outspent his opponents, shelling out more than $100 million on advertisements. Steyer is right behind at more than $81 million, according to data and analytics firm Kantar.
However, in South Carolina “First in the South” primary, Steyer is leading in spending.
Steyer has spent about $10 million on ads in S.C. markets, according to ad tracking firm Advertising Analytics — outspending his challengers Biden, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Warren and Sanders who are top four in the polls.
Bloomberg has spent and reserved $593,000 worth of ads in state media markets, according to Advertising Analytics, but he also has decided to skip campaigning in South Carolina, so his name won’t even appear on the state’s presidential primary ballot.
Three weeks ago, Steyer spent $500,000 on an ad buy on black radio, said his S.C. campaign spokeswoman Tiffany Vaughn Jones, adding another significant buy is coming soon in print.
Nationally, Steyer has raised more than $49 million — most of that self-financed — and has spent more than $47 million, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Steyer’s investment in the state appears to be paying dividends.
“I’ve been watching his advertisements throughout the season,” said Lower Richland resident Eloise Fomby-Denson, who came Tuesday to hear Steyer speak at Allen University, a private historically black college in Columbia. “I believe in what he is promising. He appears to be honest, and his track record indicates what he is saying is true.”
But political observers note many presidential candidates have significantly outspent their competitors and lost.
“Jeb Bush spent grossly more in 2016 than Donald Trump,” said College of Charleston political scientist Jordan Ragusa. “And Trump trounced him in the Republican primary.”
‘The ultimate campaigner’
Steyer says he doesn’t know why he is performing better with black voters than some of his opponents.
“I don’t know why individual human beings decide to support me or someone else,” Steyer said. “I can tell you that I am committed to the idea about talking explicitly about race.”
An online poll out Monday put Steyer’s support among black voters at 10% — third in the 2020 field, though well below Biden, whose support was 40% among Democratic voters overall and 54% among black voters in the poll. The latest Post and Courier/Change Research poll showed Biden’s overall support at 27%, with support among black voters at 41%.
Steyer’s slow rise in the state likely is tied to his increase in name ID, stemming from his ads over the course of two years, when he launched his “Need to Impeach” tour, calling for President Donald Trump’s ouster in a digital and on-the-ground campaign.
But ask his supporters and they say Steyer’s appeal is much more than that.
“I don’t even see the billionaire status. I see the man,” said Denmark’s Deanna Miller-Berry, 43, who joined Steyer’s S.C. campaign as a paid staffer this fall after previously backing Sanders’ candidacy. “I see the man that’s doing work. I see the man that’s working relentlessly to educate himself on issues that he may or may not have been aware of. I see the billionaire status basically as hope.”
The line, however, between genuine supporters and genuine supporters also on the Steyer campaign payroll is blurred.
At Steyer’s Allen stop Tuesday, reporters witnessed a Steyer staffer go around the room and collect campaign lanyards from members in the audience before the event started. Several of the people who had their lanyards removed told The State they were paid community organizers for the campaign, with responsibilities that include door-knocking and phone-banking.
This is where Steyer’s opponents see opportunities for criticism, and this is where Steyer’s supporters see nothing wrong.
“Look, surrogates, you have candidates who have the wherewithal to hire whomever,” said Henri’ Thompson, a former Steyer S.C. campaign press secretary, who noted Harris’ sister served as a primary adviser on her 2020 campaign. “I don’t see necessarily anything wrong with that. Money doesn’t necessarily buy votes. But at the end of the day, ... Steyer is the ultimate campaigner.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "In SC Tom Steyer spends millions of his own cash to prove he’s more than a billionaire."
