Tom Steyer is another billionaire who declined to run for President.
He was born and grew up in Manhattan. His father was Jewish, his mother Episcopalian. He could pass for a stereotype of a privileged child made good. The Buckley School in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Phillips Exeter boarding school, Yale (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa), Stanford Business School.
He left investment banking to start his own hedge fund, where he made his real fortune. He became interested in politics early. He worked on Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign, Bill Bradley’s, John Kerry’s, Hillary Clinton’s, and, in 2012, Barack Obama’s.
He had had hopes for a cabinet position with Obama. He had thoughts about running for governor of California in 2018. He decided against a presidential run in 2020. In fact, he is not focused on 2020 at all. His focus is impeaching Donald Trump. Steyer has been quoted saying 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.”
His Need to Impeach PAC has run ads against key Republican supporters of Trump. He has been active at early primary states i to push Democratic presidential candidates to support impeachment. He has focused has focused on the home districts of House Chairs of crucial committees – Ways and Means, Oversight, and Judiciary, trying to jump start the impeachment process.