Politics is a tough business. And not everyone is cut out for it.
Now a bombshell scandal is set to sink a major Democrat’s campaign.
A $132 Million Candidate Needs All The Help He Can Get — Even At $310K A Pop
Tom Steyer has already spent more than $132 million of his personal fortune on his campaign to become California’s next governor — an amount that makes his 2026 gubernatorial race the most expensive in state history and puts him on pace to surpass even his own legendary 2020 presidential spending spree, in which he burned through roughly $252 million before dropping out after the South Carolina primary.
Against that backdrop, $310,000 to Jane Fonda’s climate-focused PAC — JanePAC — might seem like rounding error. But the payment, reported by the New York Post, illustrates the full apparatus Steyer is assembling to maintain California’s reputation as the nexus of billionaire-funded, celebrity-endorsed progressive politics in America.
Fonda, the Academy Award-winning actress and longtime environmental activist, has appeared in a Steyer campaign ad and delivered what amounts to the full progressive endorsement package — framing the California governor’s race as a battle against “Big Oil,” “corporate power,” and Donald Trump simultaneously. “Here in California, we’re watching our communities and our state’s natural beauty being threatened in real time while Big Oil and corporate power tighten their grip on politics,” Fonda said in her endorsement statement. “Tom Steyer will bring the bold leadership this moment demands.”
JanePAC, which Fonda founded to channel activist energy and donor dollars toward climate-friendly candidates, is now effectively an extension of the Steyer campaign operation — paid for, in part, with Steyer money.
The Irony At The Heart Of The Campaign
For a race in which Steyer’s central message is “making corporations pay their fair share” and reining in the wealthy elite who have priced ordinary Californians out of their homes, the mechanics of his campaign are remarkable. A billionaire hedge fund founder, running as a champion of the working class, has written himself a $132 million check for his own campaign, paid a Hollywood celebrity’s climate PAC $310,000 for her endorsement, and saturated Southern California television and internet advertising with a seven-figure media buy — all in the name of fighting the influence of money in politics.
This is not a charge unique to Steyer among the Democratic field. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has emerged as the fundraising leader among non-self-funding candidates, raising $13 million. Katie Porter brought in $2.8 million. Xavier Becerra raised $1 million. Antonio Villaraigosa raised $707,000. Tom Steyer raised $132 million — from himself.
The argument Steyer makes is that only someone with the financial independence to be unbeholden to corporate donors can genuinely fight for ordinary Californians. The counterargument, which conservatives and more than a few progressives have voiced, is that a man who made his fortune running a hedge fund and is now bankrolling Jane Fonda’s PAC to tell voters he’s on their side has constructed a form of populism that primarily benefits Tom Steyer.
What The California Primary Has Become
The June 2 California primary is now a study in the state of Democratic politics. A self-described democratic socialist in the White House of New York City is signing $310k checks to Jane Fonda while promising to fight billionaires. A hedge fund billionaire in California is paying $310,000 to a celebrity climate activist’s PAC while promising to fight corporate power. In between them, candidates like Mahan and Villaraigosa are trying to make the case that results matter more than theatrical positioning.
Mahan, who has made a point of saying California’s problems are not Trump’s fault, and Villaraigosa, who made headlines for a similar acknowledgment on a recent Fox News debate, represent a strain of Democratic pragmatism that Carville, Fetterman, and every other honest postmortem analyst of the 2024 election has identified as the party’s only viable path back to majority status. Whether California’s Democratic primary electorate is ready for that kind of candor — or whether it continues to reward the billionaire promising to tax billionaires and the celebrity whose PAC takes their checks — is the question the June 2 results will answer.
On the Republican side, Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco remain the top contenders, with Hilton’s polling and fundraising positioning him as the likely face of a competitive general election that California Republicans haven’t been able to mount in years. The Steyer/Fonda alliance, whatever its electoral impact, at least makes that argument easier.
