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I Detest Billionaires: My Journey to Supporting One for Governor of California
Make no mistake about it: Corporate lobbyists are horrified that Tom Steyer might become California’s governor. Despite myself, he may just be the class traitor we've been waiting for.
May 04, 2026
As a progressive who watches too much television, when I see a Democratic candidate dominating the TV air war with ubiquitous campaign ads, I usually know that’s a Democrat I should oppose—the one being lavishly funded by wealthy corporate interests. And the ads are usually vapid, empty.
Living in California these past months, I’ve had to adjust my normal mindset. Because the Democrat running for governor who was dominating the airwaves had put out one substantive ad after another—calling for taxing the wealthy, breaking up utility monopolies, standing up to Big Oil. Each ad could have been put out by Bernie Sanders. Like the ad featuring Rep. Ro Khanna about taking on the “big insurance companies” to pass universal “single-payer healthcare” for California.
Or the candidate’s video message denouncing AIPAC (“they’re attacking progressive Democrats every chance they get”) and the Democratic Party establishment for “not talking more forcefully” against the Iran war.
The candidate putting out all these wonderfully progressive ads is billionaire Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager turned environmental advocate, now self-funding his campaign to the tune of $130 million. So far.
Let me be clear: I generally loathe billionaires and hedge-funders and everyone in the financial speculation elite. I remain skeptical that someone as wealthy as Steyer who operated at the heights of amoral financialized capitalism can deeply understand and fight for working-class interests.
If Steyer is elected, will he prove to be the effective “class traitor” that most Californians need him to be—a governor who stands up to corporate greed and power?
So I was in a quandary. A month ago, after seeing Steyer’s anti-AIPAC video attacking Democratic leaders for failing to “forcefully” oppose Trump’s war, I started an intense dialogue with progressives across California, including journalists, experienced activists, organizational leaders. Almost all—somewhat surprisingly or confusedly or embarrassingly—were arriving at the same conclusion: the billionaire, Tom Steyer, is the best choice for governor.
Many had attended and been impressed by one of Steyer’s town hall forums across the state, where his introductory remarks were short while the audience Q&A went long. I started finding online memes from an activist I respect, Amar Shergill, a Steyer-supporter who formerly chaired the California Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus—including his charts comparing the Democratic field.
Like in other Democratic one-party states, pro-corporate corruption in California’s state capital is rampant, which is why California—with a population almost as large as Canada’s—lacks universal healthcare coverage. Most Democrats in office say they support it, but profiteering insurance interests fund their campaigns. A bill to move California toward government-provided single-payer health insurance that would replace private insurance sailed through the Democrat-led state legislature in both 2006 and 2008, when it was well-known that GOP Gov. Arnold Scwharzenegger would veto the measure. Both times. Schwarzenegger called it “socialized medicine.”
But a funny thing has happened in the California legislature ever since Democrats took the governor’s office in 2011, first Jerry Brown and then Gavin Newsom: A single-payer healthcare bill never made it to their desks. In some years, thanks to medical industry lobbyists, the bill didn’t even get out of committee.
Make no mistake about it: Corporate lobbyists are horrified that Tom Steyer might become California’s governor. To stop Steyer, corporate forces and their allies in the Democratic establishment have moved from now-disgraced Rep. Eric Swalwell to Xavier Becerra, former US Secretary of Health and Human Services. Becerra, who won praise from the right-wing Murdoch press for pocketing the maximum campaign donation from Chevron, is now bending to the will of private interests on healthcare, according to KQED public radio.
Steyer’s unequivocal support of CalCare universal health coverage is one of the reasons he’s endorsed by Rep. Ro Khanna and the California Nurses Association (CNA), and why RootsAction (which I co-founded) came out in support last week.
One dividing-line issue among Democratic candidates is the California Billionaire Tax Act—a ballot initiative launched by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers that would impose a one-time emergency tax on the state’s 200 richest individuals to bolster healthcare. It’s supported by Steyer, Khanna, Bernie Sanders and opposed by Gov. Newsom and billionaire friends like Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt of Google. (As a funder/activist, Steyer used statewide ballot initiatives to win reforms, including Prop 39 in 2012 that closed a corporate tax loophole to fund green jobs and energy-efficiency in schools.)
The TV air war has taken a bizarre turn. While Steyer’s ads dominated for many weeks, he is now facing a barrage of negative ads funded by some of California’s powerful corporate interests straight-facedly accusing him of being a corporatist—of profiting from past investments his hedge fund had made in fossil fuels and private prisons. We know who’s funding the attacks on Steyer thanks to California’s DISCLOSE Act, which requires that the top funders of campaign ads be listed in the bottom third of the TV screen.
Even though California has a strongly-Democratic electorate, it’s likely that only one of the half-dozen serious Democratic gubernatorial aspirants will make it through the June “jungle primary” into November’s general election to face a Republican—probably Steve Hilton, a former Fox News contributor endorsed by Trump.
If Steyer is elected, will he prove to be the effective “class traitor” that most Californians need him to be—a governor who stands up to corporate greed and power? Though not as rich as Steyer, President Franklin Roosevelt certainly provides a role model as someone willing to fight “the economic royalists” he knew so well in order to uplift working people.
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May Day: Day One of a Mass Youth Uprising
This system is not made for everyday working people, and the only way we can change things is if we start disrupting the status quo.
May 01, 2026
Today, for May Day, millions of students, educators, and workers are striking for our education, lives, and futures. This isn’t just a rally or march: Whether it’s shutting down corporate offices or leaving classrooms empty, we’re disrupting business as usual. And, young people are taking the lead.
Today isn’t a one-day strike. It’s day one of a mass youth uprising. Throughout history, we've seen students and workers on the front lines of anti-authoritarian movements, catalyzing mass societal action.
In the days leading up to May Day, we’ve seen that we’re already having an impact. In Durham, North Carolina, the Durham Public Schools announced last week that school was cancelled on May 1 because over 1,000 students and staff were projected to walk out of school that day. In Madison, Wisconsin, schools shut down after 70% of staff committed to this national day of action. A dozen more school districts have followed suit.
So when pundits ask, “Where are the young people?” The answer is, May Day. Across the country, people are growing increasingly frustrated with political and institutional leadership that are serving billionaires, not us. While the Trump administration commits war crimes in the Middle East, millions are stripped of their healthcare. While billionaires get handouts to build data centers, they claim we can’t solve our housing crisis. While college football coaches are paid million-dollar salaries, tuition to attend school continues to rise.
This May 1, we will strike in hundreds of thousands. In every corner of this country, you will see students walking out of class and workers striking from their jobs.
It’s extremely clear to young people like me: This system is not made for everyday working people, and the only way we can change things is if we start disrupting the status quo. If we’ve learned anything over the past few months, it’s that when people come together in masses, we are more powerful than the people in power, and we win. Specifically, when people practice mass noncooperation in their schools and cities, they win.
Mass noncooperation is the act of not giving in to their "business as usual." We hold the power because we make the system run, and we have the power to make it crumble. It means recognizing that the system only functions because of us, and choosing to withdraw that labor, that time, that participation is power we hold. It is not enough to protest on our days off, or repost a social media post. We need workers to stop going to work so billionaires lose money. We need students and educators to stop attending classes to show the power of those empty seats. We need to stop working for a system that is failing us, to show them that we can turn it all around if they keep ignoring our needs.
We’ve seen mass noncooperation work in the past. Earlier this year, after tens of thousands of people went on strike in Minneapolis following the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) commander in the city was removed from his role, and he himself said that the level of noncooperation from Minnesotans was stopping ICE from carrying out its goals. Now, we’re taking that action nationwide.
This May 1, we will strike in hundreds of thousands. In every corner of this country, you will see students walking out of class and workers striking from their jobs. You’ll hear chants and cheers for one another; you’ll feel hope and resilience. And when we do, we’ll show President Donald Trump and his billionaire friends that if they keep going with their agenda, we will stop their regime from operating. If they keep abducting our neighbors, if they keep choosing Wall Street over working people, if they keep starting wars instead of giving us healthcare—the kind of disruption they are seeing today will be a drop in the bucket.
We’re also sending a message to people across this country: We, working people, have the power. We run the economy, we fill the classrooms. If we stop cooperating, the billionaires can’t profit, and the oligarchs can’t rule. We have the power to win what we deserve: a world where we earn a livable wage, breathe clean air, and can afford necessities like education.
Today, on May 1, we say: No work. No school. No spending.
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US Working Class Mobilizes Ahead of Nationwide 'May Day Strong' Rallies
“Amid attacks on our health and safety, our civil rights, and our very freedom to organize, we are standing up for a worker-centered vision of America," said one union leader.
Apr 30, 2026
Labor groups, students, and families are among those preparing for nationwide rallies and marches set for Friday as part of this year's May Day Strong protests "to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires" amid worsening US wealth inequality under President Donald Trump and Republican rule.
"We are building a day of power," May Day Strong organizers said on the event website. "Because when the billionaires break every rule, it’s going to take more than a rally to stop them."
As Common Dreams reported, May Day Strong—a coalition of 500 labor and community organizations—has planned over 3,000 events across the nation to demand higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans, abolition of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid Trump's deadly crackdown on immigrants and their supporters, an end to the illegal US-Israeli war of choice on Iran, and expanding democracy over corporate rule.
For more information about Workers Over Billionaires, or to find the nearest action to you, go to maydaystrong.org.
— 50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 (@50501movement.bsky.social) April 30, 2026 at 10:52 AM
"Following the examples of the historic 2006 day without immigrants that reshaped May Day and the Black-led corporate campaigns that have unseated CEOs, to Minnesota’s resistance to occupation, together we will flex our collective power in a tremendous day of action—rallying, marching, and taking action to demand a country that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual," the coalition added. "No Work. No School. No Shopping."
As Neidi Dominguez, executive director of Organized Power in Numbers—one of the coalition's leaders—said, "We want our tax dollars going to good jobs, schools, and housing, not to sending federal agents into our cities to attack our neighbors."
"We want a government that puts more into community benefits and less into billionaire bank accounts," Dominguez added. "We are for one job being enough to pay the bills, for housing people can afford, and for public schools and healthcare that work for working families, not piggy banks for the ultrarich to steal from."
Labor author & historian, @kimkelly.bsky.social talks about the importance of channeling momentum into action, and how May Day Strong can help do that.#mayday #workersoverbillionaires #kimkelly
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— Organized Power in Numbers (@opinorg.bsky.social) April 28, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO—which represents nearly 15 million workers and 65 affiliated unions—said Wednesday that “for the labor movement, Workers Memorial Day and May Day aren’t just days of reflection—they are days of demand."
“Amid attacks on our health and safety, our civil rights, and our very freedom to organize, we are standing up for a worker-centered vision of America," Schuler continued. "From now through November, the AFL-CIO, our state and local labor movements, and allies across the country will be in the streets and at worksites to peacefully engage our co-workers and neighbors on the issues at stake in the next election so we can ensure that everyone can vote and every vote is counted and unify working people around our economic demands."
"This week and for the months to come, we will continue to fight for our vision of a worker-centered America," she added.
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said in a statement that “May Day has its roots in the fight for fair wages, safe workplaces, and a better life—and a reminder that real change happens when working people act together."
“That includes attacks on immigrant workers who are an essential part of our workplaces and communities," she added. "That’s why May Day isn’t just about showing up in the streets. It’s about using our power in every way it counts.”
Tomorrow, a wave of young people is taking action for May Day. We need a Green New Deal — not more wars for oil profit — and we're building the muscle to shut down the billionaire status quo until our demands are met.Read more on our substack. vist.ly/42h52
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— Sunrise Movement (@sunrisemvmt.bsky.social) April 30, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied from coast to coast last May 1 to mark International Workers’ Day with spirited demonstrations supporting labor rights and protesting Trump’s “billionaire agenda” and attacks on the rule of law, unions, immigrants, Palestine defenders, transgender people, and others.
Since then, US wealth inequality has widened as the pro-plutocrat provisions of Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) have taken effect—especially the permanent extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which “delivered big benefits to the rich and corporations but nearly none for working families," according to a pair of progressive economic groups.
Federal Reserve data published earlier this year showed the top 1% of Americans held nearly one-third of all US wealth—the highest share since the Fed began tracking such statistics in the late 1980s—while the bottom half held just 2.5%.
Experts say the situation will worsen as some of the worst parts of the OBBBA—including the biggest cuts to Medicaid and food assistance in those programs' histories—take effect in the near future.
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