California governor candidate Tom Steyer launches ‘predatory tactic’ to harvest voters — only costing $10

Tom Steyer’s campaign for governor is paying influencers to create social media content aimed at boosting his bid to become the next governor of California.

In March, creator Isaiah “Zay Dante” Washington — who boasts nearly two million followers on TikTok and hundreds of thousands more on Instagram — posted a video interviewing the billionaire environmental activist about his fortune and political platform, including “how capitalism has scorned young people,” the Sacramento Bee reported.

Campaign finance records show Steyer’s campaign paid Washington $10,000 to produce content across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Washington, whose handle @zayydante typically posts pop culture and sports content rather than political commentary, briefly pivoted into politics for the sponsored interview.

The paid partnership appears to be part of a broader campaign strategy.

According to a campaign memo obtained by the Sacramento Bee, Steyer’s team has approached additional content creators with offers of $10 per video, with promises of additional bonuses tied to view counts.

“Many voters are critical of Tom Steyer because of his billionaire status, lack of experience and previous investments.

“Rather than pretending that these things don’t exist, acknowledge and relate to voters’ concerns and explain why you still believe Steyer is the strongest candidate despite them,” the memo states.

Creators were reportedly instructed to post three to four videos per week focused on issues aligned with Steyer’s platform — including taxing the rich, abolishing ICE, climate change, regulating artificial intelligence and reducing corporate influence in politics — while avoiding direct mentions of Steyer or the governor’s race in order to maintain a more “casual” and “relatable” appearance.

“If it looks like a robot made it… don’t use it,” the instruction memo reads. “Keep your bio casual, relatable, and on-theme for the campaign, but do NOT mention Tom Steyer directly — this helps avoid the account looking like a bot starting out.”

The influencer recruitment effort is reportedly being coordinated through the content platform SideShift, which reaches out to creators through direct messages and asks them to upload content for approval before posting.

The campaign strategy also encouraged creators to emulate influencers such as @sandyvotes, @talkingwithsavannah and @jessica.moore371, who have already posted pro-Steyer content.

Some influencers who declined the offers criticized the outreach strategy as exploitative.

“As a professional in social media, I am seeing a lot of videos using almost word-for-word scripts about candidates that are not disclosing they are paid ads,” Serabeth Mullaney, a San Francisco-based brand and community lead who posts under the handle @synapticglories, told the Bee.

“We saw it happen in the 2024 presidential campaign. Both sides paid creators to endorse but not disclose they were paid, yet the whole thing got swept under the rug.”

Mullaney said she declined an offer from SideShift to produce videos for the Steyer campaign, calling the tactic “predatory” and arguing it targets creators who are desperate for income.

California law requires people paid by political committees to disclose sponsored online political content. The Fair Political Practices Commission has also “informally advised” influencers to tag campaign committees in posts so voters know who funded the content.

So far, there is no clear evidence that other gubernatorial campaigns are using similar influencer-payment strategies.

According to a review of campaign finance filings cited by the Bee, none of the seven other major Democratic candidates or the two Republican contenders reported direct payments to influencers or creator management agencies.

The rise of political influencers has become increasingly prominent since the 2024 presidential election, when figures such as the Nelk Boys, podcaster Theo Von and UFC president Dana White helped shape online political discourse among younger male voters.

Liberal influencers similarly mobilized online in support of former Vice President Kamala Harris. Steyer’s campaign defended the payments in a statement to the Post.

“Creators make their living generating content. The campaign believes in compensating people for their time and work product and has paid creators to generate content,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said, adding that payments are disclosed in campaign finance reports and that creators are informed about disclosure requirements.

But the campaign did not directly answer questions about whether the posts constitute endorsements requiring additional disclosure, how much creators are typically paid for sponsored political content, or how many influencers have been approached as part of the effort.

The Steyer campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on allegations that the strategy is exploitative in nature.

Steyer has outspent all of his rivals, pouring more than $130 million into the campaign — almost entirely from his own fortune, which Forbes has estimated at roughly $2.4 billion.

Before becoming a prominent environmental activist and political donor, Steyer made his fortune as a hedge fund manager, founding and leading Farallon Capital Management from 1986 to 2012.

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