Tom Steyer to appear at CNN town hall
Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer will take questions from Iowa voters on Sunday at a CNN town hall hosted by CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
The event will take place at 7 p.m. ET and air live across CNN platforms.
Steyer is far behind many of his fellow Democratic contenders, polling at just 1% nationally, according to a November Monmouth University poll. With less than 3 months until the nation’s first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, Steyer is polling at 3% among Iowa likely Democratic caucus-goers, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week.
The town hall comes days after the campaign’s Iowa political director resigned after The Associated Press reported the top aide, Pat Murphy, allegedly offered to pay Iowa politicians in exchange for their endorsements of Steyer. Earlier the same week, the campaign’s deputy South Carolina state director, Dwane Sims, resigned after The Post and Courier reported he accessed volunteer data from California Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Steyer has operated as a funding force in Democratic politics in recent years, funding candidates and organizations that promote liberal causes, and the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Steyer’s net worth reached $1.6 billion this year according to Forbes, a fortune he began amassing in 1986 when he launched his hedge fund Farallon Capital.
Steyer has spent more than $35 million on ads in support of his candidacy. According to his fundraising report filed with the Federal Election Commission in October, Steyer had put almost $48 million of his own money toward the campaign as of the end of September. He appears to have focused that money into TV ads aimed at raising his name recognition among Democratic voters.
The businessman last month participated in a CNN LGBTQ town hall co-hosted with the Human Rights Campaign, and said he would put measures in place to increase oversight over health care access to LGBTQ asylum seekers if elected president.
The audience at Sunday’s town hall at Grinnell College will be comprised of invited Iowa Democrats and no public tickets will be available for the events.
