Tom Steyer, Billionaire Candidate for California Governor, Draws Hundreds to Santa Barbara Town Hall

At a town hall in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, billionaire candidate for governor Tom Steyer laid out his vision for an affordable California free from the influence of corporate special interests. The hedge-fund-manager-turned-climate-activist received a warm welcome — along with a few pointed questions — from a packed auditorium of hundreds of Central Coast residents, who cheered at Steyer’s promises to build affordable housing, protect the environment, and crack down on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

“Californians can’t afford to live in California anymore. That is the number one issue for the vast bulk of people in this state that can’t afford to put together rent, healthcare, gas costs, electricity costs, and food costs every month,” said Steyer. “That’s really what this campaign is about, at its heart.”

With Eric Swalwell’s departure from the race following sexual misconduct and assault allegations, the crowded gubernatorial primary has become a tense scramble. Polling conducted after Swalwell’s Sunday exit puts Steyer as the leading Democrat, tied for 14 percent with Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and trailing three points behind former Fox News host Steve Hilton; meanwhile, 23 percent of voters surveyed remain undecided. Democratic voters are facing pressure to coalesce around a single candidate, given that California’s nonpartisan or “jungle” primary system means it’s possible — though unlikely — for two Republican candidates to advance to the general election. 

Momentum is building for Steyer. He’s secured endorsements from a number of elected officials, labor unions, and environmental groups, including the influential California Teachers Association. But many are questioning his lack of traditional political experience and, what’s more, struggling to square his decidedly progressive platform with his exorbitant wealth.

“He seems to be the most progressive candidate in the race,” said “diehard Steyer fan” Parker Knoles, a recent UCSB graduate. “I do disagree with him that billionaires have any place in society, and I wish he had talked a little bit more about a specific billionaire’s tax.”

The line to enter the event, held at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, stretched well down Puesta Del Sol, nearly hitting Mission Canyon Road. Before taking the stage inside Fleischmann Auditorium, Steyer stood on a bench to address an overflow crowd of roughly 100 people, apologizing for not booking a larger venue. 

“We don’t want the oil pipeline running through Santa Barbara,” shouted a crowd member. 

“Just so you guys know, I have been fighting the oil companies for 20 years,” said Steyer. “The idea that we’re going for oil — that is such bullshit, man.”

“Let’s use our technology to do it cheaper, put money in California’s pockets, and save the planet, for God’s sake,” he added.

Shortly after, the town hall commenced with an audience of around 300. After introductions from activist and social media personality Carlos Eduardo Espina and State Assemblymember Gregg Hart, Steyer walked onstage to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” wearing Nike Air Force 1s and a checkered shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He introduced his campaign goals and spoke briefly about his controversial background in finance.

“I started in one room, no partners, no employees, no windows,” said Steyer. “And it turned into a pretty big business. And I ran it for 27 years, and I couldn’t wait to leave it. And I walked away from it 14 years ago because, actually, I wanted to have a meaningful life.”

That business was Farallon Capital Management, a San Francisco–based hedge fund that was managing $20 billion in assets at the time of Steyer’s retirement in 2012. Steyer has faced criticism for the firm’s past investment in fossil fuels and private prisons, including in a prison company, now known as CoreCivic, that contracts with ICE to incarcerate people detained by federal agents. When confronted about these investments, Steyer has expressed remorse and stated that he ultimately directed Farallon to sell its holdings in fossil fuel and private prison companies for ethical reasons. 

Steyer also proudly read a “love letter” he’d received that morning from Donald Trump — in other words, a characteristically uncouth X post where the president, who recently endorsed Steve Hilton, declared Steyer a “SLEAZEBAG” and “LOSER.” Then it was time for the main event, and the crowd had no shortage of questions.

Carolyn Chaney, a volunteer with community defense group SBResiste, asked Steyer what he planned to do to stop ICE kidnappings. Chaney mentioned the recent abductions of community members in custody or freshly released from custody at the County Jails. “We have a sheriff who is known to collude with the ICE agents,” she said.

“So, that sheriff is not obeying the law, just to be clear,” said Steyer, who expressed his emphatic support for immigrants and for California’s sanctuary state law. 

“[ICE] is a criminal, violent, corrupt organization not designed to control immigration, but designed to terrorize people in our community,” he said. Without direct legal authority over federal immigration agents, Steyer said he would focus on prosecuting racial profiling incidents, investigating detention centers, establishing a state-funded legal defense system, and hosting a large-scale “know your rights” campaign. 

Two audience members asked Steyer about climate policy, including a Santa Barbara Junior High journalism teacher who read the question on behalf of his students. Steyer declared his intent to “make the polluters pay” by increasing taxes for fossil fuel and energy companies. He also said he would establish a carbon sequestration program.

Housing is another central issue for Steyer, who says he will build “one million homes in four years.” He plans to do so by speeding up the permitting process and changing zoning laws. One Carpinteria resident took the mic to express his concern around the use of the so-called “builder’s remedy” legal strategy to fast-track housing construction, referencing highly contested development proposals such as “The Farm” on the Carpinteria Bluffs.

“I’m aware that one size in a state this big does not fit all,” said Steyer. “Do I think that Santa Barbara is the same as Fresno? I’m guessing no.” He said he would work closely with individual cities and counties to address the housing crisis in ways that suit each distinct community.

“I get your point,” he added, “but we’re going to have to build.”

Early on, Steyer declared that he would answer any question — nothing was off limits. He was confident and assured as he tackled a range of other topics, though he often emphasized broad objectives, leaving the specific policy actions he planned on taking to achieve those goals unspecified. He spoke in favor of a single-payer healthcare system — a notable change from his position during his failed 2020 presidential campaign — and boasted that he was the only gubernatorial candidate with an AI platform, which would establish a “token tax” and curb job loss. 

But things got slightly thorny when it came to foreign policy, which figured in multiple audience questions despite it being a state-level election. Marcy Winograd, leader of the Central Coast Antiwar Coalition, asked Steyer whether he would support the divestment of a portion of her teacher pension fund from Palantir Technologies, which provides surveillance technology to ICE and to the Israel Defense Forces. 

Steyer dodged the question. “The question that I hear you asking is this — how do we push back?” he said. “The question that I hear you asking, really, is this — does divesting from CalSTRS or CalPERS, that are two big state pension funds, work? And in the past, it’s been very hard to make it work.”

When another audience member asked whether Steyer supported ending military aid to Israel — an issue that many voters see as a “litmus test for progressive candidates,” said the asker — Steyer again declined to give a straight answer. Instead, he said that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was, like Trump, a “criminal,” and said that he believes in a two-state solution and “protecting the existence of the state of Israel” but does not support Netanyahu.

A number of elected officials were in attendance. State Assemblymember Hart, who endorsed Steyer and is also up for reelection this year, described the California gubernatorial race as “the most critical election in the United States.”

“People are really angry and frustrated by the federal government and what Donald Trump is doing. He’s attacking California directly. Every day, it’s a new executive order targeted at us — most recently, the executive order about Sable pipeline,” Hart said, referencing the president’s invocation of the Defense Production Act last month to restart offshore oil production in Santa Barbara County. “And so the community is reflecting that concern, and they want to know that we’re going to have a governor who’s going to fight for us. And Tom understands that, and has the driving passion for it every day.”

Others were still making up their minds. “The comments he said about housing, saying that there are some communities that it fits and some that aren’t. … That’s the type of mentality that put us in the housing crisis that we’re currently in,” said Santa Barbara City Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez. He said he was looking forward to speaking one-on-one with Steyer in order to ask him how he planned to practically enforce his anti-ICE policies.