Tom Steyer

Steyer was born in 1957 in Manhattan. His mother, Marnie (née Fahr), was a teacher of remedial reading at the Brooklyn House of Detention, and his father, Roy Henry Steyer, was a partner in the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, and was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. His father was a non-practicing Jew, and his mother was Episcopalian.

After graduation from Yale, Steyer began his professional career at Morgan Stanley in 1979. After two years at Morgan Stanley, he attended Stanford Graduate School of Business. Steyer worked at Goldman Sachs from 1983 to 1985 as an associate in the risk arbitrage division, where he was involved in mergers and acquisitions. He later became a partner and member of the Executive Committee at Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco–based private equity firm.

In 1983, Steyer worked on Walter Mondale's presidential campaign. He raised money for Bill Bradley in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

In January 1986, Steyer founded Farallon Capital, a hedge fund firm headquartered in San Francisco. Steyer made his fortune running Farallon, which was managing $20 billion by the time he left the company. Steyer was known for taking high risks on distressed assets within volatile markets.

In August 1986, Steyer married Kathryn Ann Taylor, a graduate of Harvard College who earned a Master of Business Administration and a Juris Doctor from Stanford University. The Reverend Richard Thayer, a Presbyterian minister, and Rabbi Charles Familant performed the ceremony. They have four children, Samuel Taylor ("Sam"), Charles Augustus ("Gus"), Evelyn Hoover ("Evi"), and Henry Hume ("Henry"). Kathryn was on the President's Council for the United Religions Initiative, an interfaith group.

In 2006, Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, founded OneRoof, Inc., a B Corp and social enterprise business designed to bring broadband connectivity, computer literacy, and employment skills via OneRoof Internet Centers to small rural towns in rural India and Mexico.

In 2007, Steyer and Taylor founded Beneficial State Bank, a community development bank, for the purpose of providing commercial banking services to underserved Bay Area businesses, nonprofits, and individuals, with operations now in California, Oregon, and Washington. Its stock ownership is entirely held by a foundation such that all profits are reinvested in local communities.

An early supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2008, Steyer became one of Barack Obama's most prolific fundraisers. Steyer served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 2004 and 2008. Steyer has been a member of the Hamilton Project and has been involved with the Democracy Alliance, a network of progressive donors whose membership in the group requires them to donate at least $200,000 a year to recommended organizations.

After the Obama victory in 2008, Steyer was considered for appointment as Secretary of Treasury. Jim Steyer, Tom's brother, told Men's Journal that Obama and his advisors would regret having chosen someone else, due to his expertise. In January 2013, rumors briefly arose that Steyer might be named as a replacement for Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Asked whether he would accept such an appointment, Steyer said he would.

In 2008, Steyer and Taylor gave $41 million to create the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy at Stanford University. Part of the Precourt Institute of Energy, it is focused on the development of affordable renewable energy technologies, and promotion of public policies to make renewable energy more accessible. Projects included the creation of lighter, less toxic, and more durable batteries, and an analysis of the then-current power grids capacities to support future renewable energy technologies.

In August 2010, Steyer and his wife signed onto The Giving Pledge, an initiative of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

In 2010, Steyer joined former Secretary of State, San Francisco-based George Shultz, to co-chair the No on Prop. 23 campaign, the measure on the November 2010 ballot concerning California's environmental legislation, AB32. He donated $5 million to the campaign, which defeated Proposition 23.

In October 2012, Steyer stepped down from his position at Farallon in order to focus on advocating for alternative energy. Steyer decided to dispose of his carbon-polluting investments in 2012, although critics say he did not dispose of them quickly enough and noted that the lifespan of the facilities he funded would extend through 2030. A 2014 New York Times article said coal-mining companies that Farallon invested in or lent money to under Steyer had increased their coal production by 70 million tons annually since receiving money from Farallon, and that Steyer remained invested in the Maules Creek coal mine. Prior to Steyer leaving Farallon, a student activist group called UnFarallon criticized the company for investments in companies with anti-environmental policies. In 2016, some critics noted that Farallon had also invested in private prisons while Steyer was leading the hedge fund. According to SEC filings, Steyer was at the helm as the hedge fund purchased nearly $90 million of Corrections Corporation of America stock (5.5% of the company's outstanding shares). After leaving Farallon, Steyer hosted a two-day think-tank entitled the 'Big Think Climate Meeting' to discuss how to address climate change.

In 2012, Steyer was the leading sponsor of Proposition 39 on the ballot in California. Its purpose was to close a loophole that allowed multi-state corporations to pay taxes out of state, mandating that they pay in California. Steyer contributed $29.6 million, saying that he could wait no longer for the change.

In 2012, Steyer hosted a fundraiser at his home for President Obama. At a private meeting, Steyer, along with fifteen other top donors, reportedly pressed the president regarding the Keystone pipeline, which Steyer opposed. Obama was said to be supportive of Steyer's views, but reluctant to put his full weight behind any initiatives without better proof. Steyer was critical of Obama's decision to keep an energy initiative as a low priority.

After holding several conversations during the summer of 2012 with environmental writer Bill McKibben, Steyer decided to focus much of his attention on the Keystone Pipeline. Steyer officially left Farallon in 2012. He was criticized by some Republicans for attacking the pipeline even though he held some investments in the fossil-fuel industry. The investments included stock in Kinder Morgan, which had its own pipeline connecting the Canadian bitumen sands to a port on the Pacific, which could be seen as a rival to the Keystone pipeline. Steyer promised to fully unload his holdings there within a year. In September 2013, Steyer appeared in a series of commercials in opposition to the proposed pipeline.

Steyer and Taylor created the TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, California, near Half Moon Bay. The ranch is meant to research and demonstrate a sustainable way of doing agriculture. The ranch's activities include underwriting healthy food programs and co-producing an independent film, La Mission, starring Benjamin Bratt, about San Francisco's Mission neighborhood. Around 2011, Steyer joined the board of Next Generation, a nonprofit intending to tackle children's issues and the environment. In 2013, Steyer founded NextGen Climate, an environmental advocacy nonprofit and political action committee.

In February 2013, Steyer spoke at an anti-Keystone XL Pipeline rally on the Washington Mall organized by Bill McKibben and attended by tens of thousands. McKibben asked Steyer to join the protest by tying himself to the White House gate and getting arrested, but Steyer was dissuaded by his brother Jim.

In 2013, Steyer founded NextGen Climate (now NextGen America), an environmental advocacy nonprofit and political action committee. NextGen Climate provided the environmentalist movement with significant capital and political influence. Steyer spent almost $74 million on the 2014 elections.

In October 2013, Steyer launched a bipartisan initiative to combat climate change along with then-New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The initiative, called the Risky Business Project, focuses on quantifying and publicizing the economic risks of climate change in the United States. Bloomberg, Paulson, and Steyer serve as co-chairs. The Project has published three reports—a National Report in June 2014, a Midwest Report in January 2015, and a California Report in April 2015.

In 2014, Steyer funded political campaigns to advocate for the election of at least nine candidates and to influence climate change policy through NextGen Climate. Those races included helping elect Ed Markey of Massachusetts over Stephen Lynch to the Senate in a special election in 2013. Reportedly, Steyer spent $1.8 million attacking Lynch, including for a plane Steyer paid to fly over a Boston Red Sox game with a banner that read, "Steve Lynch for Oil Evil Empire".

In June 2014, Steyer said he planned to get involved in California legislative races, targeting three to four races in each house of the Legislature in a bid to affect climate change policy. The Guardian reported in 2014 that Steyer had become the single largest donor in American politics and is the leading advocate of environmental issues.

Steyer spent about $67 million of his personal fortune in the 2014 midterm elections and had a 40% success rate. Of the seven Senate and gubernatorial candidates NextGen Climate supported, three won their races.

In August 2015, Steyer launched the Fair Shake Commission on Income Inequality and Middle Class Opportunity, which was intended to advocate policies for promoting income equality.

In April 2015, Steyer testified before the California Legislature in favor of a greenhouse-gas reduction bill. In August 2015, Steyer was the guest of honor at the California Democratic Party headquarters to discuss bills to cut gasoline use in half by 2030, although Steyer did not commit to spending large sums of money to support the bills.

In July 2015, Steyer called on 2016 candidates to develop strategic plans to provide the United States with at least 50% of its energy from clean sources by 2030. Reportedly, the message was targeted at Hillary Clinton, who had yet to outline an environmental policy. It was suggested that this was a strategic move to secure a political alliance with Clinton.

In 2015, Steyer signed on to the Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Coalition. The goal of the coalition is to jumpstart the demand and availability of green energy sources.

Steyer supported Democrat Terry McAuliffe's successful 2013 campaign for governor of Virginia through his NextGen Climate Action, contributing funds for paid media (such as television advertisements) and get-out-the-vote efforts. Steyer also supported Democrats in Senate races in Iowa, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Michigan and in Gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania, Maine, and Florida. Steyer cited Florida's pivotal role in the 2016 presidential election and its geographic position, which makes it highly vulnerable to climate change, as reasons for his focus on the state.

In October 2017, NextGen America donated grants totalling $2.3-million to eight national immigration law service organizations, including the University of California Immigrant Legal Services Center, the Immigration Law Clinic at U C Davis School of Law, U C Hastings Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Asian Law Caucus, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Center for Community Change, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Beginning in October 2017, Steyer spent approximately $10 million for a television ad campaign advocating the impeachment of Donald Trump, and more on a digital ad campaign to call for Trump's impeachment. In the ad, Steyer identifies himself only as an "American citizen" and alleges that Trump "brought us to the brink of nuclear war, obstructed justice at the FBI and, in direct violation of the Constitution, has taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth." Trump responded by calling Steyer "wacky and totally unhinged."

In an interview in October 2017, Steyer said that he was in favor of raising personal taxes. He said that upper-income people in the United States had done "disproportionately well" at the expense of working families. Steyer called one version of a 2017 Republican tax reform proposal a "thinly veiled reverse Robin Hood".

The Need to Impeach campaign led to speculation that Steyer was planning a run for California governor or California senator in 2018, although he did not do so. In March 2018, Steyer launched a 30-city town hall tour and, going into the fall election season, the campaign had amassed close to 6 million petition signatures.

Steyer considered running for governor of California in 2018, but in January 2018 announced that he would not run in the election.

In November 2018, in a full-page USA Today ad, Steyer outlined five non-partisan issue areas on which he said the Democrats should campaign, and which "represent essential freedoms that should be guaranteed for all Americans": voting rights protections, a clean environment, a complete education, a living wage, and good health.

In 2018, Steyer received two suspicious packages from convicted mail bomber Cesar Sayoc.

Steyer stepped down from his role as President at Need to Impeach in July 2019 when he announced his presidential campaign. As of 2019, he has reportedly spent over $70 million in the effort. Steyer said Need to Impeach will continue under new leadership and named Nathaly Arriola, as the new Executive Director.

After initially indicating that he would not seek the presidency, Steyer launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on July 9, 2019, in an online campaign video posted to Twitter. As a self-funded candidate, Steyer committed himself to spending millions of dollars in campaign advertising.

On April 17, 2020, it was announced that California Governor Gavin Newsom had selected Steyer to chair a task force focused on the state's economic recovery after the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. The task force will also include former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger, and Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook. Steyer's co-chair will be political advisor Ann O'Leary.

Steyer came in seventh place in the Iowa caucuses and sixth place in the New Hampshire primaries out of the 11 active candidates, receiving no delegates. He earned no national pledged delegates from Iowa, New Hampshire, or Nevada. Steyer spent a great deal of time and money in South Carolina, far outspending other candidates. However, on February 29, 2020, he finished third (behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders). Following that result, he suspended his campaign. Steyer spent over $253 million, with all but a little over $3.5 million coming from his personal funds. This amount worked out to be $3,373 for every vote he received in the three primaries where he was on the ballot before dropping out of the race. He reportedly spent over $18 million in the state of South Carolina alone. During Steyer's time as a candidate, his campaign spending surpassed that of every other Democratic candidate except for fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg.