Tom Steyer Wasted 1/5th of His Fortune on Presidential Race

Tom Steyer danced into the final hours of his campaign before officially exiting the race on Saturday.

Given that few knew who the billionaire candidate even is, it certainly goes to challenge the conventional wisdom that money buys elections. Or perhaps it’s just that money doesn’t buy elections when the candidate has the personality of Steyer or a Michael Bloomberg (who has sunk $409 million into the race).

While Bloomberg is setting money ablaze at an incredible rate, his ad spending only represents 0.63% of his $56 billion net worth. Steyer spent $267 million – upwards of an entire fifth of his net worth.

Steyer’s net worth is commonly cited at $1.6 billion, but the exact figure is unknown. Forbes Magazine has been quoting his net worth at exactly $1.6 billion every consecutive year since 2014 until March 2019, which seems like an impossible lack of variation for someone who ran a hedge fund. Regardless, that is the best estimate we have of his fortune, and in that case he just squandered 17%, or nearly a fifth of his net worth away on his failed bid.

Bernie Sanders may not win the presidential race – but he did accomplish one of his life goals in making two billionaires poorer this election cycle.