By California’s Democratic Socialists of America have endorsed billionaire investor Tom Steyer for governor, a decision that says less about Steyer than it does about the ideological flexibility of the modern left.
The nation’s largest socialist organization, which claims roughly 100,000 members nationwide, did not exactly hide its discomfort. Steyer is not merely wealthy. He is a former private equity executive who built his fortune at Farallon Capital before spending more than $100 million on political campaigns, including his failed 2020 presidential bid.
For a movement that defines itself in opposition to billionaires, private equity, and capital accumulation, Steyer would seem to represent nearly everything it claims to oppose.
The California DSA said as much in its own voter guide.
“Even if he glibly considers himself a ‘class traitor,’ his wealth was earned through the exploitation of the working class.”
The group went further.
“Much of his wealth was also invested in private prisons and coal mining, accumulated by the same things he now decries.”
And yet, after laying out the case against him in language that sounded like an indictment, the organization endorsed him anyway.
“However, the most progressive of the current viable candidates for governor is Tom Steyer. Time will tell whether he’s truly a class traitor.”
That is the real story. The endorsement does not reveal a movement making a hard moral compromise in pursuit of power. It reveals a movement whose principles are altogether far less fixed than its slogans suggest.
If wealth is exploitation, Steyer should be disqualified. If private equity fortunes are built on the backs of workers, he should be a symbol of everything socialists claim to resist. If investments in private prisons and coal mining are morally disqualifying, his candidacy should be an easy case.
Instead, the DSA found a way to make peace with all of it.
Steyer, whose net worth exceeds $2 billion, has leaned into the “class traitor” label, appearing at events in branded hats and T-shirts. His platform includes familiar progressive priorities, including higher taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy. For the DSA, that appears to be enough.
The result is a strange political transaction. Steyer gets credibility from the socialist left. The socialists get a wealthy candidate who can compete in a costly statewide race. And the ideology bends to accommodate the arrangement.
Recent polling shows Steyer running slightly behind Democratic frontrunner Xavier Becerra, even as he spends heavily on campaign advertising. Other candidates in the race include Antonio Villaraigosa, Katie Porter, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, and Matt Mahan.
CALIFORNIA POLL – Governor (top 2 advance)
🟥 Steve Hilton: 22% (+4)
🟦 Xavier Becerra: 20% (+10)
🟦 Tom Steyer: 14% (-2)
🟥 Chad Bianco: 13% (-1)
🟦 Katie Porter: 9% (+1)
🟦 Matt Mahan: 9% (+5)
🟦 A. Villaraigosa: 1%(+/- change vs 4/12-18)
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Kreate Strategies | 5/5-9 | 900… pic.twitter.com/lh33qXp9pC— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) May 11, 2026
The DSA also pointed to Steyer’s positions on social issues, including his support for transgender women participating in sports and his opposition to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Those positions help explain the endorsement. For today’s left, adherence to the correct cultural and political litmus tests can apparently wash away sins that would otherwise be treated as unforgivable.
That is what makes the episode revealing. The movement that insists billionaires should not exist is willing to back one when he is useful. The movement that denounces corporate wealth can excuse it when it funds the right politics. The movement that claims to be animated by class struggle can suspend that struggle when the billionaire says the right things.
The endorsement comes amid a crowded and increasingly high-profile governor’s race, including recent debates at the Skirball Cultural Center featuring the major candidates. Steyer’s campaign continues to present him as a convert from finance to environmental and progressive activism.
But the California DSA’s endorsement suggests something more basic. The issue was never really wealth. It was never really private equity. It was never really whether fortunes are built through exploitation.
It was always power.
And when power is on the table, even the socialists can find room for a billionaire.
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