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Progressive Billionare Tom Steyer Will Not Run for President in 2020

Clay Masters
/
Iowa Public Radio
Progressive billionare Tom Steyer tells reporters in Des Moines he will not run for president in 2020.

Progressive billionaire activist Tom Steyer came to Iowa Wednesday announce he will not run for president. The former hedge fund manager instead says he will put another $40 million into his “Need to Impeach” group which pushes support for impeaching President Donald Trump.

“Most people come to Iowa around this time to announce a campaign for the presidency,” Steyer told reporters in Des Moines. “But I’m proud to be here to announce that I will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes to remove a president.”

Steyer did not say if there was a presidential candidate he would support in the Democratic primary.  “Need to Impeach” has been running ads in Iowa and he made several trips to the state during 2018 including a speech at the Iowa State Fair’s Des Moines Register Soapbox.

If there’s a time when I think that running will be the most positive thing that I can do I will definitely do it,” Steyer said Wednesday. “But at this point this is my firm conviction that this is how I can make the best difference in terms of working for the people of America.”

Another one of his groups, Next Gen America, spent a lot of money in Iowa to turnout young voters in the midterm.

Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.