By Jim Ellis — Thursday, April 16, 2026
Governor
California businessman and investor Tom Steyer / Facebook photo
Steyer, who has already spent over $90 million of his personal wealth to promote his gubernatorial campaign has a chance to become the top Democratic candidate and qualify for the general election in the state’s top two primary system.
Party leaders are concerned that the primary vote would be split among so many Democratic candidates (23) that two Republicans, namely former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, could capture first and second place. Such a result would freeze any Democratic candidates from advancing to the general election.
The shutout fear also explains why party leaders were beginning to coalesce around Swalwell, believing he had the best chance of securing a general election qualifying position. Now, without him in the race, the party leaders need to focus on another candidate to avoid the shutout.
Tom Steyer is a former presidential candidate who began as an Independent but later became a Democrat. He is a controversial figure, and one not likely to commit his complete allegiance to party leaders as readily as would many of the other Democratic contenders.
The Steyer new policy objective declares war on ICE and advocates the following principles in his released plan:
- Abolish ICE – Put ICE agents in jail & “treat them like the mob.”
- Bring those “kidnapped & detained by ICE back home.”
- Give the California Attorney General the power to imprison ICE agents & their leadership.
- Have taxpayer funded legal representation & support for illegal aliens.
- Ignore a SCOTUS ruling that allows ICE to utilize to use race, language, job, and location to contribute to “reasonable suspicion” for immigration arrests, and instead, California should take matters into our own hands and extend legal protections to its residents, despite the federal government’s failure.
Launching such a controversial policy statement, and one that is extreme even by California standards, may prove the exact wrong strategy to employ just when he could now move to the top of the massive 62-person candidate field.
It is important to remember that all voters are eligible to participate in the June 2 qualifying election, not just Democratic Party members as would be the case in a closed primary; going to extremes on the immigration issue, then, even to the point of basically declaring civil war on the federal government, may not be a successful proposition.
While California is one of the most reliably Democratic states in the country, and a party candidate’s victory in the 2026 general election is already viewed as a foregone conclusion by most political observers, a Democrat finalist’s margin in some statewide campaigns is not insurmountable.
Most Republican candidates attract about 40 percent of the general election vote, and most Democratic winners secure their statewide positions in the high 50s.
Therefore, while the Democratic base is certainly anti-ICE, it may be a stretch for Steyer to assume that the majority of even California Democratic voters want to jail law enforcement officers, bring back deported aliens, ignore the US Supreme Court, and virtually break the state away from the United States.
The Steyer immigration policy document now brings yet another point of controversy into the California Governor’s campaign and may open the door for another Democrat to emerge as the party’s top candidate. Such a Democratic candidate might better attract traditional party support and gain the necessary momentum to overtake Steyer and secure a general election position.
Or, these latest turn of events in the California Governor’s campaign could lend more credence to the idea that a pair of Republicans, Hilton the Fox News host, or Bianco the law enforcement officer, could actually secure both general election slots and shut out the entire Democratic field for the general election.