REMARKS AS PREPARED: Tom Steyer Delivers San Francisco GOTV Speech
SAN FRANCISCO — At a fired-up Get Out The Vote rally in San Francisco, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and climate advocate Tom Steyer delivered a closing message aimed squarely at working Californians fed up with a system rigged for corporations and billionaires.
Calling out corporate influence in Sacramento and pitching an aggressive populist agenda to lower costs, expand healthcare and housing, and take on monopoly power, Steyer urged voters to reject politics as usual and prove that when Californians fight back, corporations lose. Here are his remarks as prepared:
San Francisco! Thank you! It’s an honor to be here with you.
We’re three days out from an election that will determine the future of our state.
Are you ready to win it?
I know this race has felt complicated. But it’s actually now become very simple.
It comes down to this: Do you want a California for corporations, or a California for Californians?
Do you want this to be a state where our healthcare system puts profit over people?
Do you want this to be a state where Big Oil charges us 8 bucks a gallon?
A state where special interests rig the system for themselves?
These aren’t difficult questions.
I know my answer. And if I’m hearing you right, I think I know your answer.
For too long, we’ve had a system where corporations buy off politicians to protect their profits.
We’ve seen it in this race.
Chevron cuts you a check, and you look the other way when they hike prices at the pump. Meta gives you money, and your AI plan starts sounding like ChatGPT.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the story of Xavier Becerra’s campaign.
He suddenly dropped his support for single-payer, and then the most powerful anti-single-payer lobby maxed out to his campaign.
He supported more drilling in California, and the next week Big Oil said thanks with half a million dollars.
I’m running because I believe Californians deserve better than that.
They deserve a governor who won’t sell them out to the highest bidder.
I know a lot of people have reservations about voting for a billionaire. I get that.
I see the ways so many billionaires lie, cheat, and steal to get whatever they can out of the system – and then do everything they can to hoard their wealth and avoid paying taxes.
Screw that.
We can’t let that happen.
I wasn’t born a billionaire, I won’t die a billionaire, and I’ll never govern for billionaires.
As governor, I’ll raise taxes on billionaires – myself included. I’m the only candidate who will say that.
It’s a big reason why the other billionaires hate me.
The truth is this: I might be the only billionaire on the ballot, but I’m not the only one in this race.
In this race, the corporations and billionaires have picked their candidate.
Xavier Becerra is backed by a roster of corporations and billionaires who got rich by ripping you off – and who want a governor who’ll let them keep doing it.
Chevron, Meta, Uber, Airbnb, PG&E, and McDonald’s have given tens of millions of dollars to boost his campaign, and stop ours.
Big Tobacco joined the big money brigade yesterday. That’s absurd!
Ask yourself: Do you really want the same future Chevron does?
Do you want the same things Meta wants?
Do you think Big Tobacco wants good things for the people of California?
Look: These companies might be selfish, but they’re not stupid.
They don’t give hundreds of thousands of dollars to get someone elected, unless they know he’s going to be on their side.
It’s not charity. It’s an investment. And corporations expect a return on their investment in Xavier Becerra.
They’re backing the guy whose chief selling point is that he “knows the system.” That he’s been a part of the system for a long time.
Of course they are. They love the system! Because it’s been working well for them.
They want to keep your rent high.
They want to keep your bills high.
They don’t want you to have affordable healthcare.
And they want you to vote for Xavier Becerra.
But here’s what you need to know: They don’t care about you.
They only care about their bottom line. They just want the best deal they can get. What happens to you is just the cost of doing business.
And they know I’ll lower costs for working Californians at the expense of their profits.
That’s why they’re spending over $50 million to stop me.
That’s the most outside spending in a primary in the history of this state.
To quote FDR: “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.”
Look: If the people ripping you off are against me, I must be doing something right.
They know that in a world where politicians serve special interests, I can't be bought.
It’s very simple: If we win, corporations lose.
How do I know that we can win?
Because we’ve done it before. I’ve spent the last 15 years taking on powerful special interests hell-bent on preserving the status quo.
When we first said we wanted to take on Big Oil, all the Sacramento insiders told us there was no way we’d win. That there was no way we’d beat the powerful interests we were up against.
But we went ahead anyway. And we didn’t just beat the special interests – we smashed them.
It turned out that closing tax loopholes for wealthy out-of-state corporations didn’t drive business away. It just raised money for schools.
And it turned out that free lunch for every child in California wasn’t a utopian idea. It was just a good one.
And it turned out that Big Tobacco wasn’t invincible, and Big Oil wasn’t unbeatable. Someone just had to stand up to them.
I led a campaign to impeach Donald Trump at a time when other Democrats were still preaching “norms” and “civility.”
We started a movement of 8 million Americans demanding his impeachment.
Because I’ve been in enough boardrooms to know a crook when I see one.
And it turned out that everything everyone told us was wrong.
As a result, we won free lunch for every kid in California.
We built 17,000 units of affordable housing.
We secured billions of dollars for schools, healthcare, and clean energy projects – all without costing California taxpayers a penny.
That’s what we were able to do from outside the governor’s office.
Imagine what we’ll be able to do from within it.
If we win, corporations lose.
I’m running for governor because I believe in a not-so-radical idea: California should work for working people.
The people that make this state work should be able to afford to live here.
The young people who’re getting screwed should be able to feel hope for their future – a future in California.
This is the richest state in the richest country in the history of the world. It’s unacceptable that so many Californians struggle to make ends meet.
Here’s the truth: for every bill that’s too high, there’s a special interest profiting off of keeping it there.
They want you to believe that’s inevitable. That it’s just how the market works.
But that’s BULLSHIT. We don’t have to accept this.
I’m running for governor because I know that a better California is possible.
I know what it looks like.
And I know we can win it together.
We can win a California where no one has to choose between seeing a doctor and putting food on the table.
Where you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay for being sick.
You only have to worry about getting better.
Because we can deliver single-payer healthcare in California.
We can win a California where you can afford to build a life in the place you grew up.
Where you can pay your rent and plan to buy.
Where you can trust that if you fall on hard times, your state will have your back.
Because we can build 1 million new homes that Californians can afford.
We can win a California where your utility bill reflects the cost of electricity – not what’s best for PG&E’s shareholders.
Where you aren’t price-gouged to pay for someone else’s stupid war.
Where you aren’t laid off to give a tech billionaire a bigger bonus.
Because we can take on the monopolies and break their chokehold on our markets.
We can win a California where AI is a tool for workers, not a replacement of workers.
Where data centers pay their own way.
Where we can fund our schools and healthcare.
Because we can tax the hell out of corporations and billionaires who got rich here, and then pulled the ladder up behind them.
We can win a California where all of our neighbors feel safe at home, work, and school.
Where we treat Trump like the crook he is… and ICE and its leaders like the criminals they are.
Because we can take on Trump and prosecute ICE – all the way up to Stephen Miller.
Together, we can make California a state that works for working people again.
A California where a child will have two decades of free, excellent public education.
Where her parents have access to healthcare, and childcare, and good-paying jobs.
Where she’ll grow up in a home her family can afford, in a community with clean air and water, in a state that tells her she can do anything – no matter what she looks like, or where she was born.
Your vote is not for me. Your vote is for that California.
That’s what the corporations and billionaires don’t want. That’s what they’ve spent 50 million dollars to try and stop.
That’s what we’ve got to get out there and win, ballot by ballot, vote by vote.
That’s what we’re doing on Tuesday.
Because here’s what PG&E, Meta, and Chevron don’t want you to know: None of this is far off.
These dreams are not too big. Anyone who says otherwise is invested in a system rigged against you.
Let’s prove them wrong on Tuesday.
If we win, corporations lose.
It has been the greatest privilege of my life to spend the last six months traveling up and down this state.
Everywhere you go in California, you’re reminded that there’s no place like this one.
You know I’m a climate guy. I could talk for hours about California’s natural lands and why I love them.
But what this race has reminded me is that there are no people like Californians.
I’m honored to have the very best of them on my side.
I’m talking about the nurses…
The educators and school employees…
The environmentalists…
The childcare and home care providers…
The stagehands and entertainment industry workers…
The restaurant and hotel workers…
The carpenters…
And every one of you here today.
I’m not in this race for me. I’m in it for them. I’m in it for you.
And the people keeping prices high are supporting Becerra – and trying to stop me. That tells you everything you need to know.
Don’t be fooled by fears of a lockout. All recent polling shows that risk is near zero.
This is a three-way race for two spots on the ballot in November: a MAGA Republican, a corporate Democrat, and you guys and me.
But you’re not voting for who’s on the ballot. You’re voting for the California that comes after it.
The California that Steve Hilton is running on sounds exactly like what Trump wants: higher prices, lower wages, less freedom.
And the California that Xavier Becerra is promising sounds like a whole lot more of the same.
All his policy failures are choices. It’s a choice not to have a plan for education, or for the environment. Those are choices his corporate backers are paying him to make.
And they’re unconscionable. We cannot afford to have a governor bought off by Big Oil.
But if you’re happy with how things are going in California, and how much things cost, by all means: vote for Xavier Becerra.
He’s not going to change things. The corporations funding him are banking on that.
But California deserves better. California needs change. That’s what I’m running to deliver.
So many Californians tell me that they don’t believe government can do anything for them. They don’t believe it can work.
There’s only one candidate who’ll change that.
The world has always looked to California for a glimpse of the future. Let’s show them how great it can be.
We can prove that single-payer is possible, and homeownership is achievable, and that corporate monopoly power is not inevitable.
We can close corporate tax loopholes to fund our schools and healthcare.
We can make polluters pay – instead of Californians at the pump.
We can stand up to Trump and put ICE in jail.
When you cast your ballot, it’s not about me.
It’s about single-payer.
It’s about climate progress.
It’s about housing.
It’s about taxing billionaires, which no other candidate has said they will do.
We can prove that a California that works for working people is possible.
That’s what’s on your ballot.
But I can’t do it alone. And I wouldn’t want to. I need you – all of you. Today, tomorrow, Tuesday, and every day after.
Because a better California is only possible if we vote for it.
If we win, corporations lose.
So drop your ballot in the mail if you haven’t already. Make a plan to vote. Text your friends, call your family, talk to your neighbors.
Tell them about the California you want to live in, and tell them it starts with Tuesday.
Thank you for being here. I’d be honored to have your vote.
Let’s win this!
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