California’s 2026 gubernatorial race continues to evolve with candidates jumping in and leaving. While the Republican field has remained stable with pundit Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, it’s clear the Democrats are trying to find anyone else to vote for but former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter.
Last week, billionaire investor and climate activist Tom Steyer announced his campaign for the governorship. Steyer briefly ran for president in 2020, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in his failed effort.
“We have a broken government,” Steyer said in announcing his campaign. “It’s been bought by corporations and my question is: Who do you think is going to change that? Sacramento politicians are afraid to change up this system. I’m not. They’re going to hate this. Bring it on.”
If Steyer said “unions” or even “unions and corporations” he’d have said something accurate, but, alas, Steyer’s better at making money than making prescient observations.
His sparse gubernatorial campaign site is light on details at this point. Among his few vows: “Make corporations pay their fair share, and put that money into our public schools to make California a top ten state for education.”
It’s a very generic talking point. Considering California spends well over $20,000 per student per year and still manages to deliver abysmal results, if Steyer thinks throwing more money into the system is a viable solution, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Plus, can you imagine thinking now is a good time to saddle businesses, and by extension consumers, with even higher taxes?
The most clueless line from Steyer is his vow to: “Ban corporate PAC money from California elections so that government serves the people, not special interests.”
If putting people ahead of special interests is the goal, why not union money too? The California Teachers Association has long been one of the biggest political spenders in the state, while the California prison guards union has spent a massive amount of money influencing Gov. Gavin Newson.
In any case, Steyer is likely to find as much success in the gubernatorial race as he did in his presidential bid. Voters didn’t find him likeable in 2020 and his recent advertising in support of Proposition 50 came off as self-promotional more than anything. Whichever consultants and campaign operatives he works with will be thankful for his willingness to give them so much money for a losing effort.
Enter Bay Area congressman Eric Swalwell, who also announced his run for the governor’s office. Swalwell says he’s running “because prices are too high and people are scared.”
He cites his time on the city council of Dublin (population just over 46,000 in 2010) for just over two years a decade ago (Dec. 2010-Jan. 2023) as a model for what he can do in a vast state of 40 million people, saying he “helped lead my hometown to become one of California’s most prosperous cities.”
Policy-wise, he’s light on what exactly he’d do to make California prosperous or how he’d bring prices under control. Did Washington, D.C. prepare Swalwell for handling the structural budget deficit Newsom would be leaving him? Or turning around an underperforming education system? Or fighting crime? Or getting the homeless off the streets?
These are all questions voters have to wonder about as they think through the litany of candidates, including former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Treasurer Betty Yee, former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, current state Superintendent Tony Thurmond, as well as Porter, Bianco and Hilton, among others.
We expect others will jump in and drop out by the time the race is settled, but it’s not exactly an inspiring field.
