Left-wing billionaire and environmental activist Tom Steyer announced on Monday — the last day to register to vote for the November 8 election — that his NextGen Climate Action Committee super PAC has registered 1 million voters, including 743,000 new voters in California and 294,000 in battleground states.
Tom Steyer is supporting Hillary Clinton for president. There are 18.2 million people registered to vote in California, which has 55 electoral votes.
According to the Sacramento Bee, Steyer issued a statement calling the surge a “positive signal about the future of our country.” Earlier this year, he reportedly pledged to spend millions this election cycle to “awaken our sleeping progressive giant,” which he described as the millions of Californians “who are on our side but don’t vote.”
Last month, Steyer announced that his organization, NextGen Climate, was putting $20 million into a $55-million program with “four national unions… going door-to-door in eight swing states, trying to do 8 million door knocks, focusing on over 2 million sporadic voters” to talk to them about issues.
The Sacramento Bee reports that, in order to achieve the 1 million-voter milestone, Steyer said he partnered with over 60 community groups across 30 countries, including Planned Parenthood, Latino Community Foundation, and Democratic Party chapters. The Bee notes that he focused on several swing states, from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Nevada, as part of NextGen’s $25-million initiative to engage youth.
Breitbart News previously noted that Steyer, who is considering running for California governor in 2018, “made his billions from his tenure atop Farallon Capital Management—much of it from coal projects around the world.” He has “apparently had an environmental epiphany and now wants to atone for his past sins by trying to save the planet from manmade climate change.”
Trump took his first swipe at Steyer earlier this month, during a rally for his supporters in Panama City, Florida. “Radical activists like Tom Steyer have promised to spend more than $70 million this election to get Clinton and Democrats like her elected,” Trump said. “In return, Clinton wants to shut down energy production all across the united States. Wait until you see your energy bills.”
The swipe was in response to Steyer’s relentless efforts to smear Trump through a series of video campaigns.
Steyer responded on Twitter, writing, “When @realDonaldTrump doesn’t like your energy policy, you know you’re doing something right.”
When @realDonaldTrump doesn't like your energy policy, you know you're doing something right.
— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) October 12, 2016
He followed that tweet up with praise for Clinton, adding that he is “proud to stand with” her because she “wants to make America a clean energy superpower.”
I'm proud to stand with @HillaryClinton, who wants to make America a clean energy superpower.
— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) October 12, 2016
The Sacramento Bee reported earlier this month that Steyer’s NextGen Climate has, so far, reported spending $15.3 million in payments opposing Trump, $300,000 supporting Clinton, and $100,000 on digital ads opposing Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz.
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