Billionaire Tom Steyer, after flirting with a presidential bid, has decided he will not seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, according to a published report.
The New York Times, quoting from remarks Steyer was prepared to deliver Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa, said he would instead redouble his efforts to oust President Donald Trump.
"Most people come to Iowa around this time to announce a campaign for president," Steyer said in the remarks he was expected to deliver at a news conference in Des Moines, which will be the center of the political galaxy a year from now when Iowans prepare to cast the first ballots of the 2020 campaign. "But I am proud to be here to announce that I will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to remove a president."
Steyer, 61, who has never sought elected office, is one of the country's most prolific political donors, contributing tens of millions of dollars to left-leaning candidates and political causes. More recently, he sounded out prospective hires about joining a possible presidential campaign.
After making a fortune as a San Francisco hedge-fund manager, he spent the better part of the last decade rebranding himself as a philanthropist, environmental crusader and, most recently, tormentor of President Trump.
Steyer traveled the country last year and spent millions on TV ads promoting the impeachment of Trump, garnering millions of signatures on an online petition but antagonizing many Democratic leaders _ including House Speaker and fellow San Franciscan Nancy Pelosi _ by pursuing what, to their minds, is a misguided and politically counterproductive effort.
He also spent heavily to boost minority and millennial participation in November's midterm vote.
Raised comfortably on New York's Upper East Side, Steyer graduated from Yale University and Stanford business school, then worked on Wall Street before moving to California and founding Farallon Capital Management, a hedge fund, in 1986.
His previous political forays have met with mixed success.
In 2010, Steyer financed a California ballot measure that beat back repeal of the state's landmark law fighting climate change, and in 2012 he backed another voter-approved initiative that hiked taxes $1 billion for out-of-state corporations to pay for conservation and alternative energy programs.
Steyer was less successful in 2014, when he spent $74 million _ most from his own pocket _ in a failed effort to make climate change a central issue in the midterm campaign. Republicans won big and elected the most environmentally hostile Congress in years.
Steyer has previously flirted with seeking elected office.
He seriously considered a run for U.S. Senate when Barbara Boxer announced her retirement after three terms, but ultimately deferred to Kamala Harris, who easily won the 2016 contest. Harris is all but certain to launch her own 2020 presidential bid once she finishes a book tour promoting her newly released autobiography.
Steyer subsequently ruled out a 2018 run for California governor, saying he believed he could have a greater political influence traveling nationally and fighting to remove Trump "from office and from power."
