'Eat the rich' DSA backs billionaire Tom Steyer for California governor

The Democratic Socialists of America, party of New York City's socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani, has backed billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer. "However, the most progressive of the current viable candidates for governor is Tom Steyer," they write. "Time will tell whether he’s truly a class traitor."

The DSA is the party that routinely calls to "tax the billionaires" and "eat the rich." After trashing obviously terrible California gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra, Antonio Villaraigosa, Katie Porter, and Tony Thurmond, the DSA stated, "Tom Steyer is somehow running the most progressive campaign." Steyer ran for president in 2020 and is known as a climate activist and philanthropist. He's spent over $100 million from his own pocket on his campaign.

What could the DSA like about a billionaire who wants to rule California? They say that Steyer backs state-level single-payer health care, which essentially would put all Californians on Medicare. He doesn't like federal immigration law and has called Immigration and Customs Enforcement a "violent extremist group." He's also called to prosecute federal agents.

Steyer backs letting men and boys play in women's sports. He's not as anti-Israel as the DSA, but under the circumstances, they're willing to let that slide. They like that he calls himself a "class traitor" while they note that "his wealth was earned through the exploitation of the working class" with investments in private prisons and coal mines. He divested from private prisons in 2006.

"It’s absolutely delicious," wrote pundit Batya Ungar-Sargon, "The side that pretends to oppose the very existence of billionaires, whose favorite diss of Donald Trump is that he’s a billionaire and thus couldn’t possibly be doing anything except favors for his billionaire friends (forget that he routinely pisses them off with tariffs and mass deportations), the side that thinks that no person can earn a billion dollars, as AOC put it this week, the side that claims to be socialists, is telling voters to pick the billionaire...It’s not just the hypocrisy. It’s what it reveals about the Left."

She noted, "The Democrats have become the party of the wealthy, representing nine of the 10 richest counties in America, the majority of Americans making over $500,000 a year and even the majority of Americans making over $100,000, while the GOP under Donald Trump has come to represent the working class." Those counties are primarily those around Washington, DC with a few in the Bay Area.

Steyer has said that while he's the only billionaire running, he's "a change agent." In a statement to CBS, he said that he's "successfully led ballot proposition campaigns to defeat big oil on climate, to close a corporate tax loophole for out-of-state companies, and took on big tobacco to raise the cigarette tax."

The two top candidates in the race right now are both Republicans, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco. Because California's electoral system is an open primary, the top two candidates who emerge from that race will face off in the general election. Democrat, and Democratic Socialists, are all terrified that may happen, which would ensure a Republican governor.