Steyer spending a fortune — $47M
S.F. billionaire’s 3-month total dwarfs campaign spending by Sanders, Warren, Trump
San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer has spent an average of $566,000 every day he’s been in the presidential race — or about $6.7 million for every minute he spoke in Tuesday night’s debate.
The Democratic megadonor dropped an astounding $47 million of his own fortune on his campaign between July and September, according to the latest Federal Election Commission reports filed this week.
That’s more than the Democrats’ top two fundraisers of the quarter — Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — combined. And it’s more than triple what President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign spent — about $14.5 million — over the same period.
Steyer’s droves of cash explain how he’s quickly muscled into contention in the race — and why he’s found surprising support in early state polls.
“You can buy getting your face on somebody’s TV screen or Instagram feed — the question is, are they going to buy what you’re selling,” said Thad Kousser, a UC San Diego political science professor. “That’s what Tom Steyer has the opportunity to prove.”
So far, he’s spent $15.6 million on media buys, $14.8 million on digital ads, $3.7 million on direct mail and $2 million on campaign salaries. Most of Steyer’s ads were targeted at the crucial primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
In addition to a $47.6 million donation from himself, Steyer also raised about $2 million from other donors, most of which came in small-dollar amounts. Many of those donors are likely on the 8 million-person email list Steyer built over the last two years with his pro-impeachment campaign, a tool that’s been a huge boon to his campaign.
His team said earlier this year that Steyer planned to spend $100 million of his fortune on his campaign. But the fact that he burned almost half of that within his first three months in the race suggests he could go even higher.
Steyer’s rate of spending puts him on track to be the biggest self-funding presidential candidate since at least Ross Perot, who shelled out $116 million in today’s dollars of his own fortune on his unsuccessful bid for the White House in 1992. More recently, Trump spent $66 million of his own money on his 2016 campaign in donations and loans he later forgave.
Steyer’s expenses ranged from millions for ads to tens of thousands of dollars in event sponsorships for early state Democratic groups to dozens of individual payments to Barry’s Bootcamp and other gyms for “wellness benefits” — the kind of perks that can help him attract staff.
Clearly, Steyer will have the resources to invest in things such as on-theground organizing in early primary states that some of his more prominent opponents can’t afford. But his fundraising report will only provoke more criticism from rivals and some on the left that Steyer essentially has bought his way onto the debate stage.
Now the question is whether his droves of cash will translate into votes. Nate Silver, the head of the political data website FiveThirtyEight, tweeted a thank-you to Steyer on Tuesday night for “providing political scientists” with “a randomized control trial of how much can $47 million worth of ads from a random rich guy move the polls.”
Harris and Biden are burning through cash
Other than Warren, Sanders and Steyer, many of the candidates are in the red, spending more than they raised over the summer.
California Sen. Kamala Harris brought in $11.8 million and burned through $14.6 million between July and September, leaving her with about $10.5 million in the bank. That’s far less than Warren, Sanders or South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
And former Vice President Joe Biden had even less, raising $15.7 million and spending $17.7 million to end with just under $9 million on hand — hardly the financial image of a front-runner.
Sens. Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former Housing Secretary Julián Castro all spent more than they took in, suggesting that they all could have trouble staying competitive through the Iowa caucuses.
Harris led in donations from her home state of California, raking in nearly $2.8 million, but was behind Warren and Buttigieg in donations from the Bay Area. That analysis only includes donors who gave $200 or more over the course of the election.
Harris got support from notable names in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg, Bette Midler, Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande, who all gave her maximum contributions.
In Silicon Valley and the tech industry, she got donations from Apple vice president of technology Kevin Lynch, Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott, Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston, venture capital investor John Doerr and Twitter executive chair Omid Kordestani — a notable supporter considering Harris has blasted Twitter over its refusal to ban Trump from the platform.
Warren still gets Silicon Valley support
Warren may be known in Silicon Valley for her plan to break up big tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. But employees of those companies are still sending a lot of money to her campaign.
The Massachusetts senator raised more than $123,000 from donors who reported working at the four companies (or Google’s parent Alphabet), according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of campaign finance reports — more than any of her rivals. That’s a continuation of a trend seen in the previous two fundraising quarters of the year as well.
Sanders was second with about $105,000, followed by Buttigieg with just over $80,000. The analysis only includes donors who’ve given $200 or more over the course of the campaign.
Some of Warren’s techie donors included Y Combinator chairman Sam Altman and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.
Warren’s campaign said this week that she’d begin rejecting donations of more than $200 from senior executives at big tech companies, as well as executives in other industries such as fossil fuels.
Among all donors who described their occupation as software engineer or programmer, Sanders led with $428,000, followed by Warren with $279,000 and entrepreneur Andrew Yang with $211,000.