Billionaire Tom Steyer leads the field in the California governor’s race 2 to 1
As California’s open gubernatorial race heats up, billionaire candidate Tom Steyer has spent nearly twice as much on his bid as the rest of the field combined — but he still has a long way to go before the polls.
Steyer’s campaign has spent at least $27.4 million, mostly on television and digital ads, according to new election disclosures for the filing period that ends Dec. 31. That’s compared to $15 million for the 10 other candidates seeking to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose last term will end early next year.
That deep campaign chest, however, didn’t push Steyer, a former hedge fund manager and environmentalist, any closer to the former post.
A Dec. 4 poll by Emerson College had him at just 5%, amid a packed Democratic field led by East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell at 12% and former Orange County attorney Katie Porter at 11%. Undecided voters make up 31%. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who entered the race last week, was not included in the poll, which had a 3 percent margin of error.
Steyer, who was due to interview other candidates in San Francisco on Tuesday night, wanted to position himself as the frontrunner in the race. Consider highlighting Steyer’s words immediately after this sentence so readers can hear his voice before commentators criticize him.
“Sacramento politicians are afraid to change this system — I’m not,” he said in a recent YouTube campaign ad.
But even with nearly unlimited campaign funds, he may struggle to ensure his message resonates with voters as June approaches, said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University.
“You still have the albatross of being a zillionaire with the ocean money,” McCuan said. “He still has trouble being heard and believable.”
Steyer isn’t the first uber-wealthy person to launch a bid for the state’s highest office. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, businessman Bill Simon, and businessman Al Checchi are among those who lost the election after spending tens of millions of their fortunes campaigning for governor.
In 2020, Steyer himself emerged from the Democratic Alliance presidential race after spending at least $250 million on the campaign.
In the governor’s race, Steyer poured $28.8 million into his campaign late last year, according to election results. Porter raised the second most of any person during that time, at $6.1 million. He spent at least $2.9 million of that total.
“While other candidates rely on private donors or their own billions of dollars, Katie’s campaign is the only one powered by the people of California,” campaign spokesman Peter Opitz said in a statement.
Porter received donations from more than 59,000 individual donors, according to the campaign. But election documents showed he also collected large donations from labor unions, including the California Teamsters.
Political commentator and Fox News host Steve Hilton, one of the leading Republicans in the race, had the next fundraising total of $5.7 million, spending at least $3.9 million. He raised more money than Porter in the last six months of 2025, a fact his campaign highlighted in an email to supporters on Tuesday.
Hilton and another Republican, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, are leading Emerson’s polls at 12% and 13%, respectively. The strong showing has raised concerns among Democrats who are worried that Republican candidates may run ahead of a divided Democratic field.
Democrats hold a nearly 2 to 1 advantage over Republicans in voter registration nationwide. But under California’s primary system, the top two candidates with the most votes advance to the November general election, regardless of party affiliation. Some Democrats worry about a situation where the party is splitting the vote between candidates, giving Hilton and Bianco enough votes to shut out Democrats in the general election.
Mahan, a 43-year-old tech entrepreneur, seems to want to take advantage of that uncertainty. While he faces many challenges in the race, especially national name recognition, his “get back” campaign message could resonate with a large segment of the electorate, said Larry Gerston, professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University.
Mahan, the only mayor in the race, appears not to have disclosed fundraising, as his campaign launched after the filing period. The campaign did not immediately respond to questions about its fundraising goals. The next big fundraising deadline is April.
Gerston said Mahan is likely to seek support from his partners in the Silicon Valley tech industry. Mahan has also been one of the most vocal in the Democratic Alliance to oppose a proposed $1 billion tax that labor groups are aiming to put on the November ballot – a decision that could help fundraising efforts.
“Where there are billionaires, there is a lot of money,” said Gerston.
Steyer’s speech, on social media on Tuesday: “I am a billionaire who will fight billionaires.”
