Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer said a surge of new voter registration efforts are crucial to flipping Georgia, but in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he couldn't elaborate on his own strategy for winning the state.
“There are 17 things that have to happen between now and my answering that question,” Steyer said during an interview in a downtown Atlanta hotel.
“What I can see is this is a state that can roll…. It's a question of determining, since you're not going to do everything everywhere, the places where you can do it and where it's important to do it. It's too soon to tell."
The California environmentalist and hedge fund manager, who will make his first appearance on a debate stage at Tuesday's event in Ohio, has bankrolled his own voter registration efforts, including the NextGen America organization that he said registered more than 1 million voters in 2016.
He’s planning to emphasize two major themes to emerge from the basement of polls, which show him locked around 1 or 2 percent.
First, that corporate influence in politics has diluted the voices of everyday Americans in Washington. And second, that his past work on clean energy, climate change and impeachment make him the perfect candidate to take on President Trump in November 2020.
“I spent a lot of time asking what is wrong here. How is it possible that we can't do something about gun violence, immigration, the cost of health care, education, climate?" he said. "What is so broken here? Money. Corporations have bought the government."
Steyer was in Atlanta over the weekend speaking at an annual Rainbow/PUSH conference organized by the Rev. Jesse Jackson's civil rights group. It was his first visit to the city since April 2018, when he appeared with former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who is now a U.S. Senate candidate, to back launching impeachment proceedings against Trump.
That was nearly 18 months before revelations about Trump’s contacts with Ukraine came to light and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally launched an impeachment investigation.
Steyer’s campaign has been focused on preparing him for the nationally televised event, as well as the four early vote states. His team has plans to expand his offices in South Carolina and into Super Tuesday states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia and North Carolina. He focused less on Georgia’s primary, which doesn’t occur until March 24.
Steyer, who entered the Democratic primary in July, described Georgia as a “deep red state” – no Democratic presidential candidate has carried Georgia since 1992 - but also said it’s “quite clearly going to end up being a Democratic state.”
“The question is when,” he said, before turning to the 2018 runner-up for governor, whom he privately met with in April 2018. “I think that what we saw with Stacey Abrams was the beginning of sort of an energizing of people who are unregistered or not turning up at the polls.”
So far, Steyer has self-funded much of his campaign – he’s reportedly willing to spend up to $100 million on the effort – and has struggled to raise much money in Georgia or other states.
And he solicited eyerolls from some Democrats for his impeachment push at a time when leaders were urging caution as special counsel Robert Mueller was conducting his Russia investigation.
Steyer and his team argued his candidacy was seeing some momentum in the polls and consider Tuesday’s debate a major opportunity to connect with potential supporters:
"Listen, I think most Americans don't know me. What I'd like to do is introduce myself and explain what I think the future can look like for America in a positive way. If I do those two things, mission accomplished,” he said.
Here are some of Steyer’s answers to questions asked by the AJC during the interview (some have been lightly edited for length):
On his strategy for winning the White House:
“I'm a believer in turnout. I believe that the way the Democratic Party is going to sweep this country is by getting people to turn out who are overwhelmingly Democratic but don't vote. There are people in the Democratic Party at the highest reaches who believe the way we're going to win is to convince people in the middle that we're better than Republicans. I'm a turnout person: tell the truth, have a clear message, get people involved, get them to turn out, we'll win.”
On whether he’ll invest in Georgia:
"I don't know, because there are 17 things that have to happen between now and my answering that question. What I can see is this is a state that can roll. I started an organization, NextGen America, which did the largest youth voter mobilization in American history last year, that registered 1,000,003 Americans in '16, where traditionally the kinds of things that we're talking about in Georgia, are the kinds of things that NextGen America has done very successfully for years. And so it's a question of determining, since you're not going to do everything everywhere, the places where you can do it and where it's important to do it. It's too soon to tell."
On winning over black voters:
"The thing that I'm saying about the corporate takeover of our government resonates with everybody, and it particularly resonates with people who are most vulnerable to the extent that people are worried about healthcare, education, living wage, clean air and clean water. We're not getting any of that until we change the way the way the government works, until the government reports to the people again instead of reporting to corporate leaders. Secondly, I think the African American population appreciates the fact that I was willing to tell the truth about Mr. Trump before anybody else, that I built an 8 million-person petition drive to impeach him.”
“I'm someone who has a history of speaking directly about race. If you look at environmentalism, our program is founded on environmental justice in the communities where dirty air and dirty water are concentrated around the country… I've also said explicitly I'm for reparations. I think it's time for us to address our history - specifically, formally - together as a first step to changing policy."
On House Democratic leadership recently launching an impeachment inquiry against President Trump:
"The people of the United States were on this two years ago. Need to Impeach was an 8 million-person petition drive asking people in Washington DC to do their job. We were talking about right and wrong. (Democratic leaders) were talking about political expediency. Now everybody's talking about right and wrong. It's always been about right and wrong. So I view this as a triumph of democracy. The people's voice has been heard.”
On critics calling for Democrats to begin consolidating the presidential field:
“That's all I care about: does my message resonate with the American people? If it does, I'm thrilled. If it doesn't, then I have no reason to be running. I have something to say, and I have a background that suggests that what I'm saying, I'm going to back up."
On Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle, the only nuclear power project under construction in the U.S. that’s years behind schedule and billions over budget:
"My opinion about nuclear is data driven and objective: if you can produce nuclear energy at a low cost, a competitive cost; if you can do it where you're disposing safely of the waste; and if you can do it in a way that it does not create immediate safety concerns for citizens, do it... My experience is it's not cost competitive, but prove me wrong.”
“Stop telling me about your political philosophy and start talking to me about the numbers and the safety … There are easy (clean energy) bets to make that are safe. There's never been a solar spill. There's never been a wind disaster."
Staff writer Greg Bluestein contributed to this article.
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