The limits of self-funding: From the Politics Desk

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In today’s edition, Ben Kamisar takes stock of the half-billion dollars Tom Steyer has spent over the course of two unsuccessful bids for office. Plus, Andrea Mitchell digs into the latest back-and-forth between the U.S. and Iran.

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More than $200 million later, Tom Steyer’s second bid for elected office is done

By Ben Kamisar

Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer ’s bid for governor of California is the second time he has spent more than nine figures in an unsuccessful attempt to win public office.

NBC News projected yesterday that former Fox News host Steve Hilton advanced to the general election for governor, joining former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. That means Steyer is out, unable to push into the top two spots in the all-party primary.

Steyer spent more than $215 million of his own money on his campaign, according to the latest state campaign finance reports. That money has helped Steyer flood the airwaves with a staggering $209 million in ad spending, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

To put that spending in context, that’s about two-thirds of all ad spending in the entire governor’s race, including dozens of candidates and outside groups. Becerra, the candidate who has spent the second-most on ads, spent $11.7 million, according to AdImpact.

Six years ago, Steyer used a similar strategy in his bid for president, giving his campaign more than $300 million — $318 million in contributions and another $24 million in loans, according to federal campaign finance disclosures.

Even though he dropped out in late February 2020 after the four early contests, Steyer’s campaign spent more money than every other candidate except three: the two eventual nominees — Joe Biden and Donald Trump — and another self-funding billionaire, Michael Bloomberg .

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, entered the contest late and spent more than $1 billion in his own ill-fated attempt to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

The next test for a self-funding billionaire candidate will come next week: Healthcare executive Rick Jackson , who has poured more than $90 million into his Georgia gubernatorial campaign, faces Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in a Republican primary runoff.

For subscribers: The Democratic fight over Graham Platner has just begun

By Jonathan Allen and Natasha Korecki

Graham Platner clinched the Democratic nomination for Senate in Maine yesterday, but the party isn’t finished fighting over his candidacy — not by a long shot.

With Maine playing a central role in Democrats’ efforts to win control of the Senate, there are active behind-the-scenes discussions over whether he can be pressured to withdraw before the state’s mid-July deadline.

🗳️ More from last night’s election results

Iran war whiplash: Trump threatens more strikes while holding out hope for a deal

Analysis by Andrea Mitchell

When is a ceasefire not a ceasefire? The definition appears to be elastic, as the United States describes its retaliation after an American helicopter went down over the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran at first called it accidental; President Donald Trump now says it was not. The Pentagon says the two pilots were rescued safely by a novel U.S. unmanned sea drone.

The U.S. is calling its response “self-defense” strikes, seemingly to signal that the ceasefire is still intact. But today, Trump told reporters, “We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today. … And we’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to the deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers.”

Earlier today, Trump told Fox News he may hit Iranian power plants and bridges because Iran was dragging its feet at the negotiating table.

If all this is starting to give you whiplash, you’re not alone. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have said at various points of the conflict that a deal with Iran is just around the corner, only days away.

Today, Trump added, “All they have to do is they have to start signing a paper, it’s fully negotiated, we have a fully negotiated, but they’re tapping and tapping, and I said, ‘All right, let’s give them a couple more days. They’re tapping because it’s a meaningful paper. They know when they sign that paper, it’s meaningful.”

Another sign of how reluctant Trump is to restart a full-scale bombing campaign is the pressure he’s been putting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate after Iran fired what Israel claimed were 11 ballistic missiles at them.

The decision to ramp up strikes against Iran — while holding out hope of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get nuclear talks underway over a 60-day period — still raises questions about why the administration believes it has the leverage to pressure Iran to sign on the dotted line.

Iran has a long history of withstanding economic pain for military advantage. Its leaders now know they have a secret weapon over the global economy. Oil storage supplies are close to being critically low worldwide, and they are still reportedly demanding access to billions in frozen assets up front before reopening the Strait.

There is no sign that is a deal that Trump could describe as a successful outcome for a war that has now lasted more than 100 days.

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Annelise Hanson.

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