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Steyer Hedges on Democrats

Billionaire resistance leader will spend less than half of what he spent last midterm on 2018 races

Tom Steyer / Getty Images
Tom Steyer / Getty Images
January 8, 2018

Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer announced on Monday he would spend $30 million on the 2018 House races, less than half of what he spent during the 2014 midterms.

Steyer, a hedge fund manager turned environmental activist, has been the left's biggest political spender for two straight election cycles, but he has failed to see a return on his investment.

He spent $74 million during the 2014 midterm election only to see voters give Republicans control of the U.S. Senate and their biggest majority in the House of Representatives since 1928. He then spent $91 million on the 2016 election which resulted in Republicans maintaining complete control of Congress and Republican President Donald Trump moving to the White House.

Steyer has since the election spent $20 million on a campaign to impeach Trump which has been criticized by Democratic leaders as premature and a "distraction." He demanded Democratic lawmakers and candidates pledge to push for the impeachment of Trump if they take control of Congress this year, but a Demember vote to move forward on impeachment received votes from just 58 out of 435 members of the House, bringing Steyer's tab to $344,827.59 per vote.

Steyer's told reporters on Monday his focus in 2018 will be to use his NextGen America political organization to increase turnout among millennial voters in just ten out of fifty states, Politico reported.

He singled out Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (Wis.), as well as Republican Reps. Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Barbara Comstock (Va.) as candidates his 2018 effort will focus on.

Steyer's first expenditure will be sending copies of Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury book to each member of Congress, he said.

His ultimate goal is to have Trump removed from office.

"My fight is not just in California, my fight is in removing Donald Trump from office, and from power," Steyer said.

"We now know that the Oval Office cannot reshape a man who does not believe in constitutional democracy," Steyer said. "We now know that the Republican Party will not cross a president who controls their base no matter what he says or does. By my count, Donald Trump has committed at least eight impeachable offenses."