Tom Steyer swooped in with millions of dollars to tout Gavin Newsom’s congressional redistricting measure. Top Democrats involved with the campaign wish he would stay away.
The billionaire investor’s eleventh-hour intervention ahead of the Nov. 4 special election, without coordinating with the California governor’s campaign team, has landed with a thud among proponents of Proposition 50. They are particularly irked by Steyer’s latest ad, in which the onetime Democratic presidential hopeful — and possible candidate for governor — boasts of bucking his party to push for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, a politically fraught topic that backers fear could turn off independent voters.
“We do think the messaging could be improved,” said CJ Warnke, a spokesperson for House Majority PAC, the outside campaign arm for House Democratic leadership which has plowed more than $10 million into the ‘yes’ campaign and coordinates closely with Newsom’s strategists.
Other Democrats, who were granted anonymity to frankly discuss internal party dynamics, were more blunt.
“It’s hard to see him single-handedly inserting himself into a campaign we’re winning,” said a senior California House Democrat. “He’s inserting an impeachment argument into a campaign that has nothing to do with impeachment.”
The warring over Steyer’s late-hour incursion into Democrats’ biggest campaign of the 2025 cycle reflects sharpening elbows among top officials in the Golden State as jockeying picks up ahead of next year’s race to succeed Newsom.
Steyer, who kept a low political profile in California after his failed 2020 White House bid, unexpectedly burst back onto the scene with a self-financed pair of ads promoting the ballot measure just weeks before voters will weigh in on the maps redrawn by Democrats in response to mid-decade redistricting efforts in red states. His initial ad, which does not feature Steyer and instead portrays Trump angrily reacting to news of Prop 50’s passage, raised eyebrows and generated speculation about his motives, including a possible bid for governor in 2026.
In the second spot, Steyer himself appears onscreen and boasts about demanding Trump’s impeachment even though “the Democratic Party were furious at me.” His advocacy in the early years of Trump’s first term indeed irked party leaders, who were initially wary of pursuing impeachment although they ultimately did in 2019. Steyer parlayed that campaign into a presidential run.
The echoes of Steyer using impeachment to raise his profile have incensed Democrats who argue Steyer is selfishly muddling the campaign’s message and veering into a more politically perilous topic. Public polling has put the measure’s support in mid-50s, offering little margin for error to pull off a win in a tight time frame.
The lawmaker said people are actively urging Steyer to reconsider his approach.
“We’re not sure why he’s so obsessed with promoting himself,” the member said. “This is bigger than him. This is about democracy.”
A representative for Steyer pushed back on that criticism, saying his team had poll-tested the spots and found they increased support for Prop 50 — including the one invoking impeachment. The Steyer camp argues it is supplementing Newsom’s effort, not competing with it, by going up in areas and during times in which the main campaign is not active or could be doing more.
“Democrats need to stop snipping at each other and focus on the real threat: Donald Trump,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
Strategists for the Prop 50 campaign see it differently. One consultant called “inaccurate” Steyer’s contention that he was airing his ads in places the campaign was not. The campaign sees Steyer’s ad buys in Los Angeles and San Francisco as competing for voters’ attention with its own messaging — especially its newest ad featuring former President Barack Obama, released this week.
“There’s no Democratic messenger in the country, and especially in California, that’s more powerful than Barack Obama,” said a major California labor leader who is working closely with the campaign.
“What kind of ego do you have to have to say, ‘I see that Barack Obama is up. I’m going to put myself in the mix?’” the labor leader said.
Part of the conflict stems from Steyer’s go-it-alone approach, which his team says is necessary to stay in compliance with SEC pay-to-play rules, given that Steyer has an active climate-focused investment fund. Steyer’s team said he had worked for months with House Majority PAC to find a way to collaborate but determined it was impossible.
Warnke, the HMP spokesperson, confirmed the group did engage with Steyer’s representatives over the summer about “multiple ways to collaborate,” but said it had not heard from his team in weeks.
While some in the Yes on 50 coalition fret that Steyer’s freelancing could undermine the campaign’s data-tested approach, a second senior House Democrat from California said additional money — $12 million — boosting the proposition is more likely to help than harm.
“I’d rather have [the money] aimed at yes and tolerate the cringe Steyer play than not have it,” the lawmaker said.
