Tom Steyer Will Not Challenge Gavin Newsom in Recall, After Polling Race

Billionaire left-wing mega-donor and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer has decided not to run for California governor against incumbent Gavin Newsom in a likely upcoming recall election, after polling the race last week.

Critics of Newsom have gathered over 2.1 million signatures — far more than the roughly 1.5 million required to trigger a recall. As Breitbart News reported last week, Steyer was said to be polling the race, possibly to challenge Newsom.

However, Steyer told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday that he will not challenge his fellow Democrat, after all:

Tom Steyer, the billionaire Democrat who sought the party’s presidential nomination last year, said he has no plans to challenge California Governor Gavin Newsom in what’s likely to be a recall election later this year.

“I have no plans to run for governor,” Steyer said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Wednesday. “I am opposed to the recall. I think that it’s a Republican attack on a Democratic governor.”

Steyer was speaking just hours after a new poll emerged showing Newsom likely to survive the recall challenge, as three in four likely California voters said they believed the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was over. Newsom faced criticism over shutdowns, delayed school reopenings, and his own flouting of state coronavirus guidelines at the French Laundry restaurant.

Last year, Steyer dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary after losing in South Carolina, where he spent heavily.

At least two high-profile Republicans have entered the race: former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and former gubernatorial candidate John Cox. Another left-wing billionaire, Chamath Palihapitiya, is mulling a run against Newsom.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.