Billionaire climate activist and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer has won a key union endorsement that helps solidify his position as the party’s leading contender for California governor. This follows the dramatic collapse of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s campaign and his resignation from Congress Tuesday amid additional allegations of sexual assault.
The California Teachers Association, one of the state’s most powerful labor unions, delivered Steyer a major boost Tuesday evening by endorsing him after yanking its support from Swalwell. The CTA joined the Services Employees International Union and top California Democrats, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Adam Schiff, in rapidly withdrawing their support from Swalwell as reports emerged detailing allegations from a growing number of women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
The teachers’ endorsement is especially notable because the Service Employees International Union, another heavyweight in California politics, has not yet weighed in. The SEIU is devoting most of its energy and resources this year to leading a ballot initiative for a one-time wealth tax on billionaires, complicating a potential Steyer endorsement.
That ballot initiative would impose a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of individuals with a total net worth of $1 billion, and has already triggered an exodus of prominent billionaires from the state. Those announcing their departure from the state include Mark Zuckerberg, who relocated his primary residence to Florida, as well as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
Even before the Swalwell scandal broke, Steyer, who has plowed more than $100 million of his personal fortune into a barrage of television ads promoting his candidacy, had pulled ahead of the former Fox News host Steve Hilton, the leading Republican candidate in the race – a shift that occurred as rumors of Swalwell’s misconduct were intensifying late last week before breaking on Friday. A SurveyUSA poll conducted April 8-10, 2026, for KGTV-TV and the San Diego Union-Tribune, found Swalwell’s support shifting to Steyer, who garnered 21% to GOP frontrunner Steve Hilton’s 18%. At the time, Swalwell polled at 9% and Republican Sheriff Chad Bianco tied with former Rep. Katie Porter at 8%.
Swalwell initially on Friday pledged to fight what he called “false” accusations against him. Over the weekend, however, he said he would drop out of his campaign for governor. On Monday the seven-term House member capitulated further in the face of vocal support for a resolution to expel him from Congress, announcing plans to resign his seat effective Tuesday, as another woman came forward with disturbing allegations.
On Tuesday, Lonna Drewes, in an emotional statement at a press conference in Beverly Hills, accused Swalwell of drugging, raping, and choking her until she lost consciousness in 2018 at a West Hollywood hotel. Drewes, who was working as a model and running a fashion software company at the time while considering a run for local office, said she had met Swalwell on three separate occasions after he offered her political and professional connections.
Standing beside her attorney Lisa Bloom, Drewes explained that she delayed coming forward for years due to fear of Swalwell’s political power, his background as an attorney, and his family’s law enforcement ties.
“I have never doubted what happened,” Drewes said.” I stand with the other women who have come forward, and I will be making a report to law enforcement shortly.”
Drewes and Bloom later Tuesday filed a formal report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau, which she said provided supporting evidence including text messages, journal entries, photographs, and witness information.
Later Tuesday, the clerk of the House read Swalwell’s resignation letter aloud on the House floor.
“I am deeply sorry to my family, staff and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell wrote. “I will fight the serious false allegations made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”
In the absence of a top frontrunner, Steyer, who has never held public office, moved quickly to address what aides privately describe as his biggest vulnerability with Democratic primary voters: his past investment record. When he ran the Farallon Capital hedge fund that made him a billionaire, Steyer’s firm invested roughly $90 million in CoreCivic, the private prison operator that runs several facilities used to detain undocumented immigrants. Steyer has repeatedly called the investment “a big mistake” for which he has apologized.
Last week, facing attacks from a pro-Swalwell political action committee, he was forced to spend an additional $1.5 million on television and digital advertising defending that record.
On Tuesday night, immediately after the CTA endorsement, Steyer unveiled a sweeping new immigration and sanctuary-state policy document titled “How California Can Put ICE in Jail.” The plan is designed to neutralize criticism from the party’s left flank, though it is already alienating independents and conservatives by criminalizing any cooperation between state or local law enforcement and ICE, promising “jail time” for California officials who assist federal immigration enforcement – even when it comes to handing over serious felons to federal immigration authorities for deportation.
Prominent critics of California’s liberal policies under one-party Democratic control immediately denounced the anti-ICE plan.
“Good luck California [sic] it was nice knowing you,” David Sacks, the venture capitalist and former chief operating officer of PayPal turned Trump Crypto czar, remarked on X.com in response to Steyer’s policy.
Key elements of the policy include:
- Abolishing ICE outright and directing California to treat the federal agency as an unlawful entity operating within state borders.
- Criminalizing any cooperation between state or local law enforcement and ICE, with jail time for California officials who assist federal immigration enforcement.
- Directing the state attorney general and local district attorneys to investigate and prosecute ICE agents for “unlawful activities” inside California.
- Immediate closure of all private and public immigration detention centers operating in the state, coupled with the release of detainees and state-funded relocation assistance.
- Expansion of sanctuary protections to include taxpayer-funded legal defense teams for every undocumented immigrant facing removal proceedings and a prohibition on any state resources being used to support federal deportation efforts.
Steyer, who built his national profile as a leading climate-change activist and who previously bankrolled an unsuccessful statewide campaign to eliminate cash bail entirely, is widely viewed as more liberal than both Swalwell and Porter on core progressive priorities.
His aggressive stance on criminal justice reform – campaigning for years to end cash bail without exceptions – went further than most Democratic leaders. Steyer poured millions into the failed 2020 Proposition 25 campaign that would have eliminated cash bail statewide, and he continues to list ending cash bail as a top criminal justice priority.
This stance directly contradicts the clear shift in California voter sentiment toward tougher-on-crime policies in recent years. Voters recalled progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022 by a 55% margin over concerns that his lenient bail and prosecution practices were fueling crime, then ousted Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón in the November 2024 election for similar “soft-on-crime” policies.
Californians also passed Proposition 36 in November 2024 by a landslide 68.4% to 31.6%, imposing stiffer penalties for repeat theft and drug offenses and rolling back key elements of the earlier progressive Proposition 47 – signaling widespread rejection of the very kind of lenient pretrial-release and criminal justice reform measures Steyer continues to champion.
His new ICE policy now pushes the envelope even harder on immigration than the sanctuary-state measures already on the books and backed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Porter, by contrast, built her brand around consumer protection issues and Medicare-for-All advocacy but was seen as more measured on criminal justice and immigration enforcement questions.
Porter’s own gubernatorial candidacy suffered last year when a series of leaked Zoom videos from her congressional staff meetings surfaced during the early stages of her gubernatorial exploratory campaign. In the recordings, Porter was captured unleashing expletive-laden tirades at aides, including the now-infamous outburst “Get the f—k out of my shot!” The videos portrayed a volatile management style that alienated key Democratic donors and operatives, stalling her momentum before the race formally began.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.
