The Atlantic, October 22, 2018: How Tom Steyer built the biggest political machine you’ve never heard of
If Democrats win the House, Need to Impeach will immediately move to the next phase, with a plan that includes activating its list to immediately pressure new members to sign on with Donald Trump’s impeachment, flooding them long before they have staffs set up in Washington. A group of constitutional lawyers is already under contract drafting specific articles of impeachment against Trump, which it will then mail to supporters. (If and when Bob Mueller puts out a report, they may do an update.)
Mike Bloomberg has made headlines for becoming the biggest Democratic donor of the midterm cycle, spreading $100 million to campaigns as he looks to build goodwill for a possible 2020 campaign. Tom Steyer is in more than $120 million—though it has all gone to building his own machine.
Steyer made a billion and a half dollars as an investor. He has sunk $50 million into Need to Impeach—so far—turning him into a familiar face in TV ads and, last year, on a Times Square billboard. Along the way, he has driven most top Democrats crazy by pushing them to take out the president, which they argue only helps vulnerable Republicans keep their seats. Bring up his name with Democratic officials and strategists, and the answer is a reliable variation of “Oh God,” or an eye roll. They complain that he’s not interested in hearing what anyone else has to say, that it’s all about him, that the money could have been better spent. They point to how many operatives have come and gone from top positions on his staff.
“Other people don’t want to stand up to it. They want to finesse it. They think that their consultants and pollsters will give them the answer,” he adds later. “It’s not that complicated. There’s a criminal who’s attacking the American people. That’s actually what’s going on.”
For all the concerned, rich liberals around the country, no one has built anything like this. Steyer clearly enjoys being able to wag that in their faces. He likes the iconoclasm. That he’s annoying so many people only convinces him more that he’s right.
In under a year, without realizing what it would become, Steyer and a small crew on the third floor of a small office building in the Financial District here built the biggest voter list in politics—bigger than the NRA, millions bigger than any group that is better known or has been around longer. And it’s not just the well over 6 million people who’ve signed his online petition to impeach Trump—500,000 new ones since July, on pace to be 300,000 in October alone, and growing by at least 3,000 per day, with spikes around big news such as Michael Cohen’s plea deal and the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. It’s email addresses and mailing addresses, now mined to connect with voter data and Need to Impeach’s own surveys and polls.
