SAN FRANCISCO — You can measure how far Democrats have retreated from climate politics in one name: Tom Steyer.
The billionaire environmental activist who built his political profile on climate change — and who wrote in his book last year that “climate is what matters most right now, and nothing else comes close” — didn’t mention the issue once in the video launching his campaign for California governor. That was no oversight.
Instead, he leaned hard into economic populism, criticizing the rich and aiming to tap into the magic that powered the likes of Sen. John Fetterman to office in Pennsylvania and is the bedrock of other 2026 hopefuls, like Graham Platner in the Senate race in Maine.
“Everyone knows that this race is really about affordability,” Steyer’s campaign strategist Rebecca Katz said in an interview. “Tom wants to get back to basics.”
