The Press Democrat - - Tom Steyer makes his case for California governor at packed Santa Rosa town hall

By: Phil Barber

Forty-five minutes before Tom Steyer’s town hall at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts on Wednesday evening, the line of those waiting to enter had reached about 200 people.

By the time Reps. Ro Khanna and Jared Huffman introduced the billionaire hedge fund founder now running for California governor, organizers had capped attendance at 600.

Steyer has only a few days remaining before the final day of voting Tuesday in the state’s primary election, not much time to close the polling gap between him and the leading frontrunners: fellow Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton. The top two finishers will advance to November’s general election.

In Santa Rosa, at least, where Steyer’s liberal platform hews closely to local political tastes, he found an enthusiastically receptive audience.

People line up next to Tom Steyer’s campaign bus while waiting to see him speak during a campaign stop at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)

Steyer, 68, railed against income inequality, the unchecked immigration enforcement of ICE, the weaponization of disaster funding by the Trump administration and the most reliable villain among Sonoma County voters — Pacific Gas and Electric Co..

“It’s a legal monopoly,” Steyer said of the company that dominates delivery of natural gas and electricity in a vast bloc of Northern and Central California, and which has been blamed for a litany of devastating wildfires in the region over the past decade. “And they’re spending over $13 million to try and prevent me from being governor.”

The utility giant has plowed at least $13.5 million into efforts to thwart Steyer’s run for state office, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.

They are not alone among heavyweights lining up either to bash Steyer or to support his main rival, Becerra, the former California congressman and attorney general, and U.S. secretary of health and human services under President Joe Biden.

Others include Chevron, McDonald’s, the California Association of Realtors, the state chamber of commerce and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The money those corporations and industry groups are pouring into the race is funding a wave of anti-Steyer attack ads. They are also fueling much of his popularity in deep-blue parts of the state, and perhaps legitimizing the central contradiction of his campaign. Steyer is a vastly rich man positioning himself as the only candidate fighting for the working class.

It’s a hard message to sell, but many in the Santa Rosa audience seemed to be buying.

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer speaks during a campaign stop at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)

Steyer was generally quick on his feet during the town hall, making his points with a mix of humor and outrage. He frequently cited his wife, Kat Taylor, who was on hand at Wednesday’s event. Taylor capped her husband’s oratory by belting out a hymnal rendition of Jackson Browne’s “I Am a Patriot.”

Steyer also traded compliments with Khanna and Huffman, whose North Coast district includes the Luther Burbank Center.

“By far my favorite (California governor) was Jerry Brown 2.0,” Huffman told the audience during introductions. “I think Jerry Brown in his second act got to this point where he was done with presidential ambition. And he just brought all of his brilliance, and this fearless independence, to governing the people of California.

“I see potential for exactly that in Tom Steyer.”

Huffman didn’t mention Xavier Becerra by name. But there was no doubt whom he was describing as “a decent guy… but maybe not the guy to fight back against Trump the way I think we need. And definitely not the guy to break out of this establishment hold.”

Steyer, on the other hand, did name-check his rival, who has emerged as the mainstream Democratic pick.

He pointed to a recent CNN interview in which the host listed a number of daunting challenges facing California and asked what the state could be doing better. Becerra highlighted California’s massive economy and breezily replied, “Something’s going on that’s not bad.”

But, Steyer argued, “It’s not working for working-class Californians in this state.”

Steyer referred to ICE, meanwhile, as “a criminal operation” that should be abolished, while acknowledging the governor of a state doesn’t have direct oversight of the federal agency.

“What I can do is this: We can prosecute ICE agents for racial profiling,” Steyer said. “We can prosecute ICE agents for violence against Californians. And we can prosecute people who send them to do violence.”

Few of the questions asked during the Q&A session that followed could be characterized as particularly incisive or discomfiting.

Audience members asked Steyer about getting young people more involved in politics, about housing construction in the wildland-urban interface, about making sure the proliferation of AI data centers doesn’t harm the environment and the possibility that the Trump administration will “steal votes” in November.

Steyer said protecting democracy in 2026 and 2028 will be “a fulltime job.”

“Do I think they got 60,000 masked, assault-rifle-armed people in ICE just for immigration? That’s not true,” he said. “Those guys are gonna be going around in November of this year, to try and make sure the vote comes out the way they want.”

Before the candidate spoke, someone asked for a show of hands among those who considered themselves “undecided” on the governor’s race. Perhaps a third of attendees raised their hands. But afterward, most of the people lined up to greet Steyer or pose for a selfie said they’d already voted for the man at the front of the room.

“I realized after I got here that voting first, coming second was the wrong order,” said Owen Wheeler, 25, who grew up in Santa Rosa and is currently home from UC Irvine Law. “But once I got here, in my eyes, he passed. I was really happy with his answers.”

Wheeler was there with Madigan Traversi, 21, also back in town from college, at UC Berkeley. Climate action is among the top concerns of these two young voters. It’s a topic Steyer has made central to his campaign.

And unlike other politicians she’s heard, Traversi said, Steyer has articulated clear policy mechanisms.

“With the climate crisis, the clock is ticking and we need urgent, big change,” she said. “So I think it was great to hear a lot of his really tangible plans for what he’s gonna do, and how.”

Debra Vinson drove all the way from Antioch to hear Steyer speak. Vinson is a California delegate. She voted for Betty Yee at the nominating convention. When Yee dropped out and endorsed Steyer, Vinson said, “It was the cat’s meow.”

She told The Press Democrat about talking to an undecided voter at the Wednesday event. That person, Vinson said, walked away promising a vote for Steyer. The Antioch resident is brimming with confidence about Election Day. She gave Steyer “a 200% chance” of making it out of the primary.

But the wealthiest, most progressive candidate in this race doesn’t have much time to swing ballots his way.

A poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California poll showed Becerra with 23% support among likely voters, Hilton with 20% and Steyer with 15%. They were followed by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, at 13% and former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter at 12%.

Expect to see Steyer’s face a lot before Tuesday. He has spent or booked close to $200 million for ads across TV and radio, according to the Associated Press. No politician in America, running for any office, has outspent him.

Correction (4:40 p.m., May 28, 2026): This story has been revised to correct a mistake in a mention of Republican candidate Steve Hilton. His first name was wrong in a previous version.