BILLIONAIRE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE Tom Steyer called on the crowd to tax people like him more, while one of his competitors, Rep. Eric Swalwell, said the California governor’s most important job should be to “keep Donald Trump and ICE out of our streets and out of our lives.”
Eight of the nine Democrats vying for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s seat made their pitch at the California Democratic Party convention Saturday, during a marathon weekend of meeting, greeting, wining and dining as they wooed thousands of Democratic delegates in San Francisco.
No candidate at the party’s endorsing convention this weekend expected to earn the party’s endorsement, which requires the support of 60% of the 3,500 delegates. Swalwell led the delegates with 24%, while former state Controller Betty Yee and former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra coming in a surprising second and third.
The result of the endorsement vote, which reflects the views of the state’s most active Democrats, diverges from their support in many polls of likely voters, which have shown Yee and Becerra at 2% and 3.5%, respectively. It could complicate a race in which Democrats are anxious to consolidate support among an unusually wide-open candidate field.
The convention was a chance for gubernatorial hopefuls to introduce themselves to the labor unions, activists and local delegates whose ability to rally donors and door-knockers throughout California makes them coveted assets for any statewide campaign. All the candidates made appearances before the various interest group caucuses.
Former Orange County Congresswoman Katie Porter, rushing from meeting to meeting in a neon pink blazer, trotted out a reliable line a few times for laughs: As the single mother of three teenagers, “running for governor is what I do to relax.” She came into the weekend with the endorsement of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, her mentor and fellow consumer law professor, and turned heads with a proposal to eliminate state income tax for households making less than $100,000.
At the environmental caucus meeting, billionaire investor Tom Steyer waded through a crowd of fellow climate activists seeking handshakes and selfies. Steyer, who has blanketed the airwaves with campaign ads using $30 million of his own money so far, is aiming to close in on the party’s left flank.
“We know we need to narrow the field, but nobody’s willing to call it.”
Loren Taylor, former Oakland mayoral candidate
Appearing before the labor caucus, top-polling candidate Bay Area Rep. Eric Swalwell stole the show by introducing an officer who worked in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, bringing attention to Swalwell’s work leading the congressional impeachment of President Donald Trump after that riot. A legion of young volunteers wearing Swalwell’s logo were around every turn at the convention center. A few hours later, Swalwell, a frequent anti-Trump figure on cable news, courted millennials who grew up on Disney Channel with a party featuring early 2000s pop duo Aly & AJ.
Many Democrats found it hard to pick a favorite in such an unusually wide field just two weeks before the deadline to finalize June primary candidates. Several of the Democrats pitched a single-paying health care system. Everyone pledged to make housing more affordable and fight Trump. Becerra, ticking off his resume to delegates, said he’s the one candidate who won’t need “on-the-job training,” but even that line was identical to one used by Yee.
Dems worry about too many candidates
The convention underscored the anxiety and frustration throughout the party that two Republicans could advance after the June 2 primary election to the November ballot. Polls for months have shown the top two Republican candidates, former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, could beat most Democrats in the race.
Former Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor summed it up at Swalwell’s party: “We know we need to narrow the field, but nobody’s willing to call it.”
San Francisco resident Cher Evans attended a nearly three-hour forum at the Commonwealth Club that featured all nine candidates, back-to-back on Friday in hopes of coming up with her pick for governor to recommend to all her friends.
“I’m a little more overwhelmed than I was before, even,” said Evans, a self-described progressive who volunteered at the convention. “It still doesn’t answer the question, how are we going to narrow down the candidates?”
Porter has pushed the hardest for Democrats to take seriously the possibility of being locked out of the November race, raising the concern in fundraising emails and before party delegates. But like her opponents, she stopped short of calling on any specific candidate to drop out, alluding only to campaigns that aren’t “viable.”
Yee, Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former state Assemblymember Ian Calderon and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan have all failed to secure even 5% support in polls.
Prior to the delegates’ vote, Porter said if she fell in the polls she would drop out. She came in fifth, with 9% of delegates.
“Right now I’ve been at the top of the polls, I’m well-positioned to come out of the primary and beat the Republican candidate but if that ever changed of course I would do what’s right for California,” she said.
Prominent party figures like Newsom and outgoing former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi haven’t weighed in. And several of the candidates are beloved fixtures, giving them the hope of future endorsements from key Democratic-affiliated groups.
Party Chair Rusty Hicks has so far dismissed concerns about a lockout even as some attendees quietly hoped he would intervene. On Friday he evaded reporters’ questions about whether or not he will, suggesting that labor unions, other liberal groups and the ability to raise money will pressure candidates.
“I certainly believe I have a role to play,” he said. “I’m not the person solely responsible for that.”
The debate over billionaires
Money has become a complicated factor.
Steyer, who made his wealth through a hedge fund and has no experience in elected office, has incrementally raised his standing in large part because of the extensive TV ads paid for with his own bottomless campaign fund. He came in fourth in the endorsement vote, with 13% of delegates.
That he’s emerging as an unlikely progressive contender, with endorsements from Rep. Ro Khanna and the powerful California Nurses Association, has rankled his opponents at a time when the party is grappling with its approach to extreme wealth.
“I think it’s just really important to demonstrate that you have both the will and the courage to tackle big problems … but also that you have the ability to relate to everyday people,” Porter said.
No candidate for governor other than Thurmond supports the one-time tax on billionaires’ assets that a health care union is proposing for the November ballot. Steyer has repeatedly stated he’s willing to pay more taxes as a billionaire and is fashioning himself as the “billionaire who will go after other billionaires,” unbeholden to corporate interests because he doesn’t need their campaign donations.
Even some of the most left-wing Democratic constituencies are considering him.
Astrid Zuniga, chair of the party’s labor caucus and president of the United Domestic Workers, said Steyer’s wealth isn’t disqualifying because “there’s good money and there’s bad money.”
“It might sound and look ironic, but if he’s willing to pay that tax then why the hell isn’t another billionaire willing?” said Zuniga.
Yee, who has struggled to raise funds, said the amount of money in the race is “a test for the party, of whether grassroots campaigns are still going to be viable.”
She emphasized her experience over her opponents, especially with the state budget, as California faces a multi-year deficit that threatens progressive priorities like expansive Medi-Cal coverage.
“We will not be pushed aside by the billionaires’ boys club who want to rule California,” she said. “I’m not stopping here.”
Later, Yee said the delegates’ vote giving her 17% affirmed her refusal to leave the race.
“Don’t underestimate the power of the grassroots,” her spokesperson Marcey Brightwell wrote in a statement Saturday night. “And don’t underestimate Betty Yee.”
Mahan the dark horse?
Steyer has pointed to Mahan’s campaign, funded with millions of dollars in contributions from wealthy tech executives, as the one to beat.
Mahan is a moderate sometimes-critic of Newsom who has gotten attention for reducing street homelessness in San Jose with a combination of tiny homes for shelter and threats to arrest unhoused residents who repeatedly turn down a shelter placement. It’s unclear how much support he can build with little name recognition outside the Bay Area.
But the money alone may make him a viable contender. At a packed wine bar a few blocks from the convention center where his campaign threw a party Friday night, he said in an interview that his goal was to “meet as many Democrats as possible” and urge them to resist “populism on the right and the left.”
Many of San Francisco’s rising moderate bloc were in attendance, along with local tech employees and representatives of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, which supported Mahan for mayor but has not endorsed a candidate for governor yet.
One man who shook hands with Mahan introduced himself as representing online gambling platform FanDuel. Across the bar, an AI company employee who said he sometimes votes for Republicans expressed excitement that Mahan was a “centrist” candidate.
Mahan batted away criticism that his campaign would cater to tech interests.
“It would be a little shocking if the largest employers in my city didn’t support me,” he said. “I’m running to expand opportunity and upward mobility for all Californians.”
Back at Swalwell’s party, delegates mixed with Sen. Adam Schiff, who has endorsed Swalwell and actor Sean Penn, who has given Swalwell’s campaign $15,000.
Christopher Torres, a 24-year-old delegate from San Dimas, said he was unsure about the gubernatorial candidates but decided to support Swalwell after hearing him prioritize fighting Trump, moved by fears of Trump’s aggressive immigration raids and erosion of democratic norms.
“Eric is the only one that is vocal about protecting California and the people of California, whatever their immigration status may be, against the federal government’s wrath against us as a blue state,” he said.
Maya Miller and Juliet Williams contributed reporting.
This story originally appeared in CalMatters.