Steyer leans into anti-corporate pitch in West Sacramento as primary nears
Democrat Tom Steyer stuck to a familiar message in a stop in West Sacramento Friday morning, casting his self-funded campaign as a bastion against corporate interests he says are taking advantage of working people.
His appearance in front of a union audience at SEIU 2015 headquarters came at a crucial moment in the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited. Stuck in third place in several recent polls, in some cases, by a narrow margin, Steyer has four days to breakthrough and garner enough support to surpass either Republican Steve Hilton or Democrat Xavier Becerra.
A UC Berkeley poll released Friday put Steyer at 19% support among likely voters, compared to 21% for Hilton and 25% for Becerra.
Only two candidates will advance to the November general election, regardless of their party affiliation.
Steyer, who has spent more than $200 million on his campaign, anchored his pitch in West Sacramento on the tens of millions of dollars business interests like PG&E and The California Chamber of Commerce are spending to run ads against him. Many other business interests, including Meta, Chevron and Airbnb, are spending heavily on an independent committee supporting Becerra.
Corporations are “putting up tens of millions of dollars to make sure they continue to make record profits and continue, if you’ll excuse the impression, to screw working people,” Steyer said. “That is what this race is about.”
Becerra and his allies have accused Steyer of hypocrisy—of earning his wealth from investments in industries like fossil fuels and private prisons and then using that money to fund a campaign where he claims the moral high ground.
Speaking to reporters at the event, Steyer suggested his wealth insulated him from being beholden to special interests.
“My campaign doesn’t take money from any of those people,” he said. “I don’t have to have any conflict.”
Omar Bermudez Urcyo, a union member from Rio Linda who held a Steyer sign in his wheelchair, said he liked the Democrats’ support for the working class but was still making up his mind who to support in the primary. Urcyo said he felt California had deteriorated significantly in the five decades since he’d first arrived from Nicaragua. He blamed politicians like Newsom for not addressing issues like poverty and homelessness—and said he too feared ending up on the streets—but hoped Steyer would offer something different.
“If he's going to fight for the majority, which is working class, and if he really, really do what he said, I think it will be good for California,” Urcyo said.
Both Becerra and Steyer are spending the final days of the campaign in Southern California and the Bay Area. Becerra has stops in San Diego, Riverside County and Palm Beach on Friday. He’ll hold rallies in San Francisco on Saturday and Long Beach on Sunday.
Steyer’s campaign will hold events in San Francisco Saturday and Los Angeles on Sunday.
This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 2:04 PM.
