Steyer spends $47 million on presidential race, while Harris and Biden are burning through cash

San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer has spent $566,000 on average for every day he’s been in the presidential race — and $6.7 million for every minute he spoke in last night’s debate.

The Democratic megadonor dropped more than $47 million of his own fortune on his campaign between July and September, according to a Federal Election Commission report filed Tuesday night. His droves of cash explain how he’s muscled into contention in the race — and why he’s found surprising support in early state polls.

So far, he’s spent $15.6 million on media buys, $14.8 million on digital ads, $3.7 million on direct mail, and $2 million on campaign salaries. Most of Steyer’s ads were targeted at the crucial primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

His total was more than that spent by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — the top two fundraisers of the quarter — combined. They spent $22 million and $18.7 million, respectively. President Trump’s reelection campaign spent about $14.5 million over the same period.

In addition to a $47.6 million donation from himself, Steyer also raised about $2 million from other donors, most of which came in small-dollar amounts. Many of those donors are likely on the 8 million-person email list Steyer built over the last two years with his pro-impeachment campaign, a tool that’s been a huge boon to his campaign.

His team said earlier this year that Steyer planned to spend $100 million of his fortune on his campaign. But the fact that he burned almost half that within his first three months in the race suggests he could go even higher.

Clearly, Steyer will have the resources to invest in things like on-the-ground organizing in early primary states that some of his more prominent opponents can’t afford. But his fundraising report will only lead to more criticism from rivals and some on the left that Steyer has essentially bought his way onto the debate stage.

Now the question is whether his droves of cash will translate into votes. Nate Silver, the head of the political data website FiveThirtyEight, tweeted a thank-you to Steyer Tuesday night for “providing political scientists” with “a randomized control trial of ‘how much can $47 million worth of ads from a random rich guy move the polls.”

Harris and Biden are burning through cash

Other than Warren, Sanders, and Steyer, many of the candidates are in the red, spending more than they raised over the summer.

California Sen. Kamala Harris brought in $11.8 million and burned through $14.6 million between July and September, leaving her with about $10.5 million in the bank. That’s far less than Warren, Sanders, or South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

And former Vice President Joe Biden had even less, raising $15.7 million and spending $17.7 million to end with just under $9 million on hand — hardly the financial image of a frontrunner.

Sens. Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and former Housing Secretary Julián Castro all spent more than they took in, suggesting that they could all have trouble staying competitive through the Iowa caucuses.

Harris got support from notable names in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Demi Lovato, Steven Spielberg, Ariana Grande, and Bette Midler, who all gave her maximum contributions.

In Silicon Valley and the tech industry, she got donations from Apple vice president of technology Kevin Lynch, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston, venture capital investor John Doerr, and Twitter executive chair Omid Kordestani — a notable supporter considering Harris has blasted Twitter over its refusal to ban President Trump from the platform.

Warren is still getting love from Silicon Valley

Warren may be known in Silicon Valley for her plan to break up big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. But employees of those companies are still sending a lot of money to her campaign.

The Massachusetts senator raised more than $123,000 from donors who reported working at the four companies (or Google’s parent Alphabet), according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of campaign finance reports — more than any of her rivals. That’s a continuation of a trend we saw in the previous two fundraising quarters of the year as well.

Sanders was in second with about $105,000, followed by Buttigieg with just over $80,000. The analysis only includes donors who gave $200 or more, as smaller-dollar contributions aren’t reported individually.

Some of Warren’s techie donors included Y Combinator chairman Sam Altman and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

Warren’s campaign said this week that she’d begin rejecting donations of more than $200 from senior executives at big tech companies, as well as executives in other industries like fossil fuels.

Among all donors who described their occupation as software engineer or programmer, Sanders led with $426,000, followed by Warren with $278,000 and entrepreneur Andrew Yang with $211,000.

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