Billionaire Tom Steyer wants to take on the rich in run for California governor

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer is selling himself as a class traitor in his bid for California governor.

The Democrat with a personal fortune estimated at $2.4 billion wants wealthy people and corporations to pay higher taxes. He's endorsed by a progressive advocacy group that believes billionaires shouldn't exist. He founded one of the world's largest hedge funds yet he's the candidate taking the heaviest hits from business groups.

“I'm the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires,” he's fond of saying, though he's given only tenuous backing to a billionaires' tax proposal likely to appear before California voters in November.

Steyer has long leaned into the contradictions between his business success and political views. While his hedge fund invested in fossil fuels, Steyer spent millions to protect a California law aimed at curbing planet-warming emissions. As a presidential candidate in 2019 vying to succeed President Donald Trump, another rich man, Steyer championed eliminating corporate money from politics.

“I’m not one of the people who begrudges people’s success,” Steyer told The Associated Press, referring to businesspeople who become wealthy in California. “If you’re going to come here and build a company and make a ton of money, great.”

“But you’re part of a system — you’re depending on a system built by, basically, poor people,” he continued. “If you aren’t willing to pay your fair share, I feel like you’re spitting on those people.”

His stances, often unpopular with other billionaires, have earned him staunch support from some and persistent skepticism from others. Despite his vast wealth, progressive supporters perceive him as “one of the good ones” who will stand up to monied interests. But critics in both parties view him as disingenuous and making unrealistic promises to appeal to voters. Democratic rivals accuse him of trying to buy the election, noting he's spending nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest party opponent on ads.

After decades of using his pocketbook to influence politics and policy, Steyer is now a leading contender in the race to govern the nation’s most populous state and one of the world’s largest economies ahead of the June 2 primary. His former hedge fund's investments have been a persistent topic of criticism from his Democratic rivals.

“You made the billions that you're using to fund your campaign off fossil fuels,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter charged during Tuesday night's debate. Steyer responded by noting business groups are spending to oppose him: “That's how you know I'm for real.”

Steyer, 68, founded Farallon Capital Management in 1986 in San Francisco. He earned the respect of business peers for the firm's rapid success and learned to weather criticism from environmentalists for the company’s stakes in oil and coal. In 2012, he left and founded NextGen America, a group encouraging young people to vote.

Much of his political giving has focused on climate change, including a $5 million donation in 2010 to oppose a California ballot proposition that would have suspended a law requiring the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The climate law prevailed. Starting in 2013, he used the political arm of NextGen to back governor and U.S. Senate candidates seen as strong on climate with mixed success.

Steyer has spent more than $62 million on California ballot measures, including an unsuccessful effort in 2020 to keep a law that eliminated cash bail. He was one of the largest donors to a successful 2016 measure to tax tobacco products to raise money for healthcare for low-income Californians.

His contributions have been met with some cynicism. Longtime Sacramento strategist Rob Stutzman, a Republican, pointed to an ad Steyer paid for last year that prominently features him urging voters to support a redistricting ballot measure. It was an initiative championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Steyer had no involvement other than simply spending on advertising.

Steyer “has always been a self-promoter with his dollars,” Stutzman said.

Steyer says he wants to tackle three main crises: climate change, California's high cost of living and threats from the Trump administration.

Hundreds of people gathered at a ping-pong club and bar in San Francisco recently to drink cocktails and nibble on hors d’oeuvres — on the campaign dime — as Steyer touted his commitment to fighting climate change. His plan is light on specifics but includes defending the state’s cap-and-trade program.

Some major environmental groups have endorsed him. Progressive organizations have also backed him, including Our Revolution, which was founded by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and advocates for ridding politics of corporate and billionaire influence. State Assemblyman Alex Lee, chair of the progressive caucus, said he's backing Steyer in part due to his support for a government-run healthcare system, an idea that's failed repeatedly in Sacramento.

Lee was hesitant to back a billionaire but said Steyer is different.

“He is someone who became wealthy in his lifetime,” Lee said, “but didn’t go off and become (Mark) Zuckerberg level.”

Meanwhile, Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the nation's largest utilities, spent $10 million to oppose him. Steyer has vowed to “break up utility monopolies” to bring down Californians’ notoriously high electricity rates. One ad funded in part by PG&E says Steyer isn't a “different type of billionaire” as he claims. The California Chamber of Commerce says Steyer will raise costs, not lower them.

“His policy promises will cost billions, driving investment out of California and worsening the state’s affordability crisis,” chamber spokesperson John Myers said in a statement.

It remains to be seen whether money and endorsements will translate into votes. Some political observers say it would be evident by now if Steyer was poised to break away from the pack, given his spending blitz.

Money wasn't enough in the 2020 Democratic presidential contest. Steyer staked his campaign largely on appealing to voters of color, highlighting inequalities in healthcare access, the environment and criminal justice system. In South Carolina, he spent $24 million on ads — more than all the other candidates combined — but dropped out after finishing third.

He often garnered attention for his quirks over his policies — the red tartan tie and colorful belt he made part of his campaign trail uniform, his dance moves to a performance by rapper Juvenile.

Steyer had planned to spend $100 million, and his wealth proved a liability in a race where rivals including Sanders decried the existence of billionaires.

He's spent more in the California governor's primary alone, including on an ad attacking a rival. This time, he's being received differently.

“Tom Steyer is running on taxing the wealthy, supporting single-payer healthcare, and taking on corporate power — positions that are central to our movement,” Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese said in a statement. “That alignment with a pro-worker, anti-corporate agenda — and the urgency of this race — is why we are backing him.”

Associated Press politics reporter Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Chad Bianco, left, and Tom Steyer speak with members of the media following a California gubernatorial debate hosted by CBS LA at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Tom Steyer speaks during a gubernatorial debate hosted by CBS LA at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Tom Steyer speaks with members of the media following a California gubernatorial debate hosted by CBS LA at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

California's gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer speaks after a gubernatorial debate hosted by Nexstar, Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

PARIS (AP) — Millions of people across France woke up drenched in sweat on Tuesday after another night of scorching heat, with most of the population exposed to extreme and exceptional temperatures.

Temperatures will remain exceptionally high around the clock as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments under a red heat wave alert. That is about half of the country.

In a country without widespread air-conditioning, schools, trains and sporting events remain impacted, while some 20 drowning deaths have been reported since the weekend.

Human-caused climate change is tied to increasingly extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years should shatter more heat records.

“Sunshine continues to dominate across France, maintaining oppressive and exhausting heat throughout the country,” Meteo France said. Extreme conditions are expected to last at least until the end of the week, with daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many towns.

“Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,” Meteo France said.

The heat wave is exceptionally intense, coming very early in the summer, “but with a still uncertain duration,” the weather service said. It has already been compared to the August 2003 heat wave, when the highest temperatures in over half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them among older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

France introduced a heat watch warning system after that heat wave.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those deaths were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month. The above-average temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

Across the British Channel, the Met Office issued a red extreme heat warning for Wednesday and Thursday, with forecasts suggesting June’s all-time daily temperature record could be broken.

Temperatures of around 37°C (98.6 F) are expected in southern England, with up to 35°C (95 F) in southeast Wales. The peak of the heatwave is now forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, when highs could reach at least 39°C (102.2 F). Conditions are expected to ease by Friday, the weather agency said.

The EU monitoring agency found that in Europe and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.

People cool off in a water spray at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A family walks through a cooling water spray at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A man shields himself from the sun with a scarf as he walks in the garden of the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, during a heat wave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Tourists with an umbrella take a photo in Paris, as France is enduring a grueling heat wave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )

A drugstore sign shows the temperature 43 degrees Celsius (109,4 degrees Fahrenheit) in Rennes, western France, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)