Democrat hedge fund billionaire and global warming activist Tom Steyer spent $74 million on Tuesday’s midterm elections, making him this election season’s single-largest donor. Almost $67 million of Steyer’s campaign war chest was spent on his super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, reports Forbes.
However, as The Hill points out, Steyer’s big money spending spree may garner him one of the hedge fund titan’s most middling returns to date.
In Colorado, Steyer’s super PAC has spent $7 million against GOP Senate candidate Rep. Cory Gardner and $421,202 for Democrat Sen. Mark Udall. The RealClearPolitics average of polls has Gardner up 2.5%.
In Iowa, Steyer has blown $4.6 million against Republican rising star Joni Ernst and $781,327 backing embattled Democrat Rep. Bruce Braley. Currently, the RealClearPolitics poll average shows Ernst up 2.3 points over Braley.
In New Hampshire, Steyer has thrown $3.7 million against GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown. As of election day, Brown and Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen remain in a statistical dead heat, with Shaheen up just 0.8%.
More broadly, Steyer’s goal of making global warming a centerpiece of the midterm elections has clearly failed. According to Gallup, just 2% of Americans cite “environment/pollution” as among the nation’s most important problems. As Forbes notes, Steyer originally hoped to raise $100 million, with half of that coming from other donors. In the end, Steyer’s fellow rich liberal cronies chipped in less than $4 million.
“We are taking a very analytical approach to our campaigns–relying on very specific data,” Steyer told Forbes. “But if you can’t connect with voters and show them why climate change is impacting their community, it’s difficult to motivate them and get them to the polls on Election Day.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.