OPINION:
Even though his environmental policies were rejected overwhelmingly by voters in 2016, it seems that billionaire Tom Steyer may be eyeing a run for president in 2020.
Hey, the Democrats’ bench is thin, Mr. Steyer has always had an eye on political power, and he’s got the money to launch himself into the national spotlight.
“Steyer, the California Democrat, has already said that post-Trump, he is rethinking whether to enter the 2018 governor’s race, long assumed to be his target,” according to Politico’s California Playbook on Monday. “There’s some speculation that Steyer, whom Trump has targeted as a ’radical’ Democrat, may now have his sights set elsewhere — if not the U.S. Senate, then perhaps even the White House in 2020. After all — If Trump proved anything, it was that politics as usual no longer applies. And a wealthy American without any political experience, but with money, a message and a knack for social media, may believe he has a shot at the national stage.”
As The Washington Times editorialized last week, Mr. Steyer’s political record is less than stellar. He blew through $174 million in the last two elections trying to push his green agenda — one that voters overwhelmingly rejected.
Mr. Steyer jumped into Democratic politics during the 2014 campaign and spent $67 million, the largest amount by any individual donor on either side. He spent more than $100 million this cycle, again becoming the largest single donor.
His main goal in both cycles was to promote climate change as the nation’s No.1 issue. He poured money into campaigns that prioritized the issue, and tried to gin up the millennial vote on college campuses to push the issue into the forefront.
Embarrassingly for Mr. Steyer, Democrats lost big-time in both cycles, and according to a Chapman University poll released in October, more Americans were afraid of clowns than climate change. Gallup and other polls have also continually found concerns like the economy and national security outrank those of climate change.
So good luck and Godspeed to Mr. Steyer. 2020 it is.
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