Tom Steyer gathers with content creators as he campaigns for governor

Candidate for California governor Tom Steyer gathered on Thursday evening with selected guests, most of them content creators, at La Guelaguetza restaurant to continue his journey on the campaign trail.

The event, which had very little Latino presence, welcomed the special guests with a varied menu of Oaxacan food and Mexican decorations throughout the patio.

Once Steyer stepped in, the crowd cheered for him. Right away, he started talking about some of his priorities: healthcare, housing and education.  

Steyer said he is committed to single-payer health care, a system where the government pays for all resident’s health care needs. 

“Our system overall costs twice as much as single-payer health care. Every time they say, ‘How can we afford it?’ I say, how can we afford not to do it? We can’t afford this,” he said. 

He also said education is something to look at,  since the Golden State is falling behind. And he reaffirmed his support to tax billionaires. 

However, he elaborated more on housing, speaking to a crowd, which by majority seemed to be Millennials and Gen X. He said he wants to give hope to people who think they can never own a home due to the skyrocketing prices and interest rates. 

“We can do a much better job in terms of low-interest loans,” he said. “But the other thing we have to do is a massive amount of down payment assistance when you put it forward, 20% of the house, and when the house gets sold, or in 30 years, the money gets repaid to the state with some income.”

However, because there is high demand but not enough houses, Steyer said if he is elected governor, on day one, he will call for a special election.  

“We will close the corporate real estate tax loophole for $22 billion that gets sent to the cities and counties. Now they have the money for housing,” he said. “Sometimes the cost of a house, 20%, is a fee to the city or county that they charge you on top of whatever the house costs. That's 20% that we can get rid of, right? Just like that.”

Not everyone is convinced

Several Latino content creators showed their opposition to this event, held in a Mexican restaurant with barely any Latinos and with a specific agenda. Steyer’s presence at the event lasted about 30 or 40 minutes maximum. 

Latina content creator Julie Ear, who attended the event, said in her social media that she felt disappointment with Steyer and “something was not clicking” because the event felt almost staged. 

“Tell me why there were just a handful of Latinos and mostly content creators?” she said on her Instagram. “Most of the Latinos there were the staff working there at La Guelaguetza. I had a conversation with one of the workers and she validated what I felt,” she said.

She also criticized a table setup with toiletries and house items where people could make kits and add a note to eventualy donate. There were several items, from personal hygiene to home cleaning items, along with papers and pens to write the notes. 

There was also a photo booth where people could take selfies and several of the content creators opted to include Steyer in the photos. 

Other Latino content creators, like Jay Gonzalez, who didn’t attend, also criticized the event and the use of Mexican culture to attract attention.

“The fact that Tom Steyer is using Latino culture as a Trojan horse to make so many Latinos forget that he LITERALLY invested in core civic, where so many of our people are being killed. But the damning fact is that is WORKING…” he said in Threads.

Attorney and content creator Taylor M. Tieman, who goes by @leagalmiga on socials, said she was disappointed to see that Steyer’s event included “papel picado,” which is part of the cultural and spiritual Mexican tradition, just to attract voters.

“I cannot believe I’m watching this man continue to pander to the 40% Latino population in CA with some bullshit like this. Literally disgusting,” she said on Threads.