Is Tom Steyer the Craziest Democrat?

Steyer’s craziness is illustrated by his immigration policy.

Apr 21, 2026

I am going to start highlighting contestants in what I’ll call the Craziest Democrat competition.

This was inspired in part by President Donald J. Trump’s Feb. 24 State of the Union Address, when he said: “But surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who would believe that we’re even talking about it? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.”

When Republicans rose in wild applause and the Democrats refused to respond President Trump said: “Nobody stands up, these people are crazy. I’m telling them they’re crazy.”

It seems several Democrats are working overtime to prove President Trump was right. Tom Steyer is one of them.

Steyer is a brilliant hedge fund investor who has billions to spend. He tried running for president in 2020 and spent $253 million on his campaign before dropping out without picking up a single delegate. In fact, Steyer spent $3,373 dollars for every vote he got.

Now Steyer is running for Governor of California. With Eric Swalwell dropping out over a series of allegations that he is a sexual predator, Steyer has become the leading Democrat in a race — in which two Republicans are doing surprisingly well.

Steyer’s craziness is illustrated by his immigration policy. He has promised to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California (which violates the constitutional system of federal supremacy by suggesting a state can opt out of a federal law).

But further, he has promised to put ICE agents and their bosses in jail. As he put it, he will take on ICE “the same way we took on the mob.” Again, the idea that a state could prosecute federal officials for enforcing federal law is preposterous. It would be the equivalent of launching a civil war between our largest state and the federal government.

But it doesn’t end there. Steyer has pledged to “bring those detained and kidnapped by ICE back home.” The American people favor prosecutors putting criminals in jail — and deporting illegal immigrants who commit crimes. But Steyer would spend the taxpayer’s money to create “a much larger and stronger immigration legal defense infrastructure in our state — funding for more attorneys, investigators, accredited representatives.”

At America’s New Majority Project, we have not yet specifically tested Steyer’s ideas, but we know as a general reality that most Americans would deeply oppose spending tax dollars to bring back illegal immigrants we have already deported. When reminded that many of those deported were in fact criminals, the opposition will grow even stronger.

Steyer’s craziness does not end with immigration. He is for government-run health care on the Bernie Sanders socialist model. He is for massive tax increases on businesses to pay for a host of expensive new programs. These new taxes would be in a state which is already driving away businesses and successful people.

Finally, Steyer picks up many of the dumbest and most destructive policies of the European greens. He ignores every fact about how much Europe has priced itself out of business by killing traditional sources of energy and going to unreliable, expensive alternative sources. Steyer in effect promises he can make California as expensive and as dependent on fantasies as Europe. The result would be an economic disaster — on top of all the other taxes and costs he would build into the system.

And none of this is new. Back in October 2017, President Trump referred to Steyer as “wacky and totally unhinged.” In that sense Steyer has an eight-and-a-half-year lead on others contenders for the Craziest Democrat competition.

Refer a friend

But the most interesting thing about Steyer’s lunacy is it could pave the way for a Republican governor of California.

There is a new post-Swalwell withdrawal Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics poll which shows surprising results from California’s electorate:

17 percent support Republican Steve Hilton,
14 percent support Republican Chad Bianco,
14 percent are for Tom Steyer,
10 percent support Democrat Xavier Becerra,
10 percent support Democrat Katie Porter,
5 percent like Democrat Matt Mahan,
and 23 percent are undecided.

In California, if no one gets a majority in the primaries, the top two candidates go to the general election. With four Democrats splitting the Democratic vote, it is possible that the two Republicans could end up in the general with no Democrat opponent. It has happened in local races before.

But it is more likely that Steyer will lock in Democrat support and end up in the runoff with one of the Republicans. Still, given Steyer’s failure to win votes in his 2020 presidential run, it is conceivable he could collapse and California could have a Republican governor.

As Gov. Gavin Newsom prepares to run for president, his worst nightmare would be leaving a Republican in charge of Sacramento. This Republican governor could spend a lot of time investigating corruption, waste, and incompetence at the heart of the California Democratic machine. Newsom would be constantly fending off attacks from his home state as he’s trying to win the national campaign.

So, as a Republican, I hope Steyer sticks to his convictions — and gets even crazier.