Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper.
With the results in from South Carolina, a strong case can be made that Tom Steyer has just concluded the worst campaign in the history of presidential politics.
Steyer, the California-based founder of Farallon Capital and the co-founder of Onecalifornia Bank and Beneficial State Bank, became a household name – at least among those households with MSNBC – by being the single largest funder of efforts to impeach President Trump. After telling reporters in January 2019 that he would not seek the presidency, Steyer exercised his prerogative to change his mind and declared his candidacy in July.
According to the FEC, Steyer has spent $253,718,074 through January 31, 2020. All but $3,555,597 was from his own pocket. Pre-Bloomberg, a quarter billion dollars for the first four primaries is a staggering amount. But the incredible lack of return on that investment is even more eye-popping, especially for someone whose campaign’s sole justification was his supposed business acumen.
Nowhere was that total incompetence more on display than in South Carolina. Steyer, whose $253 million failed to merit a single delegate in the first three contests, bet his entire campaign on South Carolina. He spent more time there than any other state and his wife Kat Taylor essentially moved to the state. Instead of a triumph, he dropped out of the race immediately after Biden won the state with 50% of the vote.
According to the New York Times, Steyer spent over $18 million on television alone in the Palmetto State. Steyer’s campaign spending has been so excessive that the Times reports that his name has “turned into a verb” – local activists refer to a candidate foolishly overpaying as “steyering.” Some of that spending was ethically questionable, such as renting a campaign headquarters from Jennifer Clyburn Reed, whose father is Congressman James E. Clyburn, the dean of the state’s Democratic Party. Some of that spending was just … goofy. When the Charleston County Democrats held their “Blue Jamboree,” Steyer not only sponsored the lunch, but bought a ticket for every member of the Benedict College marching band and rented them a bus to get there. All of that spending was inefficient, ineffective and ultimately inept.
The numbers are just staggering.
Let’s make some assumptions. Since the Steyer campaign spent $253 million through January, it’s safe to assume another $30 or so million for February, when television buys were at their highest, so let’s call it $280 million.
His seventh-place finish in Iowa netted him 3,061 votes on the first alignment and zero delegates.
His sixth-place finish in New Hampshire netted him 10,727 votes and zero delegates.
In Nevada, Steyer spent $13.55 million on television ads – more than twice as much as the other five candidates combined. His 9,503 first-alignment votes were sixth most and again failed to capture a single delegate.
When the Leap Day primary in South Carolina finally arrived, it looked like Steyer’s last chance to eke out a return on his huge investment.
With 99% of the total counted, Steyer will finish in third place with 59,814 votes, less than a quarter as many as the state’s winner, Joe Biden. At 11.4% of the statewide vote, he will leave South Carolina — and the presidential campaign — without a single delegate. In South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, he came a couple hundred votes short of the 15% threshold required to earn a delegate, finishing with 14.55%.
So $280 million for 83,000 votes comes to an astonishing $3,373 per vote. His $280 million for zero delegates is without precedent. On Saturday, Steyer danced to Back That Azz Up, thanked his staff for being 30% LGBTQ, and withdrew from the race.
View Comments (69)
At last! The incessant ads, first for impeachment, then for his campaign, will finally cease. They caused me to wear the mute button on my TV down to a nub(and I watch TV less than an hour a day).
Can we get the Bloomberg TV ads and mailings to stop too?
Don't count on the ads stopping. He has been publishing those for years, now.
I hope he pays his campaign bills. dims aren't very good about settling up their obligations.
Something about that mask for a face....too rubbery to take serious.
Thank god.. he called The President Incompetent from the day Trump went down the escalator..BTW he had that constant FAKE smile ..when inside he hadnt smiled since Trump was elected
So true. I only wish that narcissistic lunatic had spent all of his money!
so much good could have been done for the Nation if his ego had been shut down. What a waste of $$$ and print .
Maybe he can find something useful now.
I do not watch T V that much anymore and Steyer was one of the main reasons. He came on, the TV channel was changed or just turned off. He was the most annoying thing on TV ever!!!!
I live in Nevada and all those ads achieved was to convince me that Tom Steyer is a raving lunatic.
"Hold my beer..."
--Michael Bloomberg
No one likes Tom Steyer. No one. The California Democrats under Brown and Newsom ignore him. The California Republicans consider him an outrage, ready to sacrifice the entire state of California to help prevent global warming, and ready to impeach Trump for no reason at all.
So Democrats were PAID by Steyer to impeach the president? The ads in my town had Steyer bragging about how he and Obama hog-tied the energy industry and led to $5 per gallon gas so people would give up their cars and walk to work.
In 1980, John Connally spent $11 million and got one delegate. Adjusting for inflation, that is $33 million. So Steyer is the champ. Like Steyer, Connally focused on South Carolina.
Love to watch these guys flush all their money.
: )
Easy come, easy go
Maybe he would have gotten more votes if more of his staff had been gay?
Only in California
Evil White Male And Misogyny
Evil White Male And Misogeny
I guess he won't get his chance to "kick Trump's behind".
Seems to me that what we saw in Tom Steyer's pointless and ego-ridden campaign was one of the California "bored billionaires" (as Katy Grimes used to call them) on display. As I recall, from what Katy used to describe, the "bored billionaires" were always popping up at election time to stir up trouble (as well as get their hands on an oversized piece of govt pie) by qualifying and then pushing self-serving ballot initiatives behind organizations with names like "California Forward." The actual individuals involved otherwise preferred to stay behind the scenes except, of course, for the prestige they gained among fellow members of the Smart Set.
My memory is probably failing me on the details, but I think the one service that Tom Steyer's puzzling presidential campaign may have performed for us is to show us a very public example of the otherwise hidden California bored billionaires.
Not that any of us really wanted a look.
That's true, because Tom Steyer might be the most annoying person ever, but it's helpful to know who the foolish moneyed class is who are secretly pushing harmful laws.