“Tom Steyer’s campaign says he has qualified for the December Democratic presidential primary debate, making the billionaire activist the seventh candidate to do so,” Politico reports.

Tom Steyer purchased the domain name for President Trump’s campaign slogan, “Keep America Great,” which now redirects visitors to a web page calling Trump a “fraud” and “failure.”

A progressive nonprofit funded mainly by Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer is investing $45 million as part of a youth voter turnout campaign ahead of the 2020 election, The Hill reports.

“A top aide to Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer in Iowa has privately offered campaign contributions to local politicians in exchange for endorsing his White House bid,” the AP reports.

“The overtures from Pat Murphy, a former state House speaker who is serving as a top adviser on Steyer’s Iowa campaign, aren’t illegal — though payments for endorsements would violate campaign finance laws if not disclosed. There’s no evidence that any Iowans accepted the offer or received contributions from Steyer’s campaign as compensation for their backing.”

“But the proposals could revive criticism that the billionaire Steyer is trying to buy his way into the White House.”

“Billionaire Tom Steyer’s campaign said Sunday he has qualified for the October Democratic presidential primary debate, giving his campaign a much-needed opportunity for publicity as he looks to break out of the bottom of the Democratic field,” CNN reports.

“The longtime Democratic donor, now the 11th candidate to qualify for the DNC debate, made the cut on Sunday after a CBS News/YouGov poll found him polling at 2% in the early voting state of Nevada.”

“Tom Steyer’s campaign was confident he would make it into the September debate. With the help of a nearly $5 million online advertising blitz, the billionaire presidential candidate had scooped up the necessary 130,000 unique donors in just over a month, meeting the Democratic National Committee’s donor threshold to qualify,” CBS News reports.

“But he also had to meet the polling requirement. As the party’s deadline approached, Steyer had notched the necessary 2% in three qualifying polls, meaning he needed just one more to make it into the debate. The campaign hoped for another in an early primary state, where Steyer had spent more than $8 million on TV ads in six weeks, according to Advertising Analytics — more than any candidate, including President Donald Trump.”

“That poll never materialized.”

“Tom Steyer just lost a $16 million bet,” Politico reports.

“The Democratic hedge fund billionaire leapt into the presidential campaign late with a clear plan: use his mega-wealth to buy his way into the televised party debates, and then use that platform, and his unelected outsider persona, to challenge the front-runners. Steyer spent millions of dollars on TV ads to boost his poll numbers in early caucus and primary states and on digital ads to meet the donor requirements set by the Democratic National Committee.”

New York Times: “He is one poll away from becoming the 11th Democrat to qualify for the September debate ahead of a Wednesday deadline. If he qualifies, he will prevent all the top contenders from sharing the same stage, as the field will be split over two nights. If he falls short, he is on track to make the stage in October.”

“Older, white, male and wildly wealthy, Mr. Steyer would seem an unlikely messenger for a Democratic Party passionately debating racial and gender diversity, generational change and inequalities in American society. But his status as a virtual one-man ‘super PAC’ is already upending the carefully laid strategies of Democratic rivals who now must grapple with the fact that they are unlikely to have the airwaves to themselves in Iowa or New Hampshire.”

ABC News: “Since lacing up his running shoes for the 2020 race less than a month ago, billionaire, liberal activist Tom Steyer has outpaced every single other candidate in his campaign ad blitz — scrambling to make up for lost time as he competes with rivals who are months ahead of him.”

Politico: “Tom Steyer launched his 2020 campaign a little over two weeks ago and plans to self-fund his White House run with $100 million of his own money. But he still needs 130,000 people to donate to him by August 28 (and get at least 2 percent in four polls) to qualify for the third primary debate.”

“The bars imposed by the DNC pose a major test of whether Steyer’s message and his millions can actually attract enough support for a viable presidential campaign — and fast. Just days out of the gate, Steyer’s campaign has no grassroots fundraising base of its own and is competing for votes with candidates who have been in the race for months. So Steyer is flooding Facebook and Google with ads — at least $927,000 worth so far — trying to buy up new donors and airing over $4.3 million on TV spots that could give him a boost in the polls.”

Tom Steyer said in a video that as president he would let voters make laws directly through regular national referenda, NBC News reports.

“It’s part of Steyer’s new structural reform plan, which also proposes fairly novel ideas like 12-year term limits on members of Congress, a national vote-by-mail system, public campaign financing, giving the Federal Elections Commission more teeth and different composition, and imposing independent redistricting commissions to tackle gerrymandering.”

Said Steyer: “Here’s the difference between me and the other candidates: I don’t think we can fix our democracy from the inside. I trust the people.”

“Nobody owns me. I’m not afraid to speak my mind. I’m not beholden to them. I’m not beholden to the establishment.”

— Tom Steyer, in an interview with NBC News, on why he should be the Democratic presidential nominee.

“I like Tom personally, but I do have to say as somebody who in this campaign has received received 2 million contributions, averaging $19 a person, I’m a bit tired of seeing billionaires trying to buy political power.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders, quoted by The Hill, on the entry of Tom Steyer into the Democratic presidential race.

“Billionaire activist Tom Steyer declared his candidacy for the presidency in a video, reversing an earlier announcement several months ago that he intended to sit out the 2020 Democratic primary race,” NBC News reports.

“While he is not well known and the candidate field is already overstuffed with two dozen candidates, Steyer’s money could give him an edge, as could the extensive email list of 8.3 million names compiled by a group he founded to push for the impeachment of President Trump.”

The New York Times reports Steyer will spend $100 million on his primary bid.

Jonathan Bernstein: “It’s true that two amateurs, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang, have been treated to some extent as real candidates. That bought them each a spot in the first round of debates. But while the Democrats didn’t rig the rules against them (which I think they should have), the party has barely been tempted by either candidate.”

“There’s no reason to think it’ll be different for Steyer, who unlike Williamson and Yang can’t even claim to bring something to the field that wasn’t already there (Yang has a universal basic income plan, and Williamson has … well, she’s different than the other candidates, anyway). Steyer is part of the very liberal wing of the party? So are several current candidates. He cares about the climate? Even the moderates in this group say the same, and several have put forward well-regarded plans. If he doesn’t think Washington Governor Jay Inslee (who is running specifically on climate policy) is getting enough support, why not set up a pro-Inslee Super PAC?”

“The truth is that it probably doesn’t matter how long the tail of candidates at 2% in the polls is: The entire tail will presumably be cut off after Iowa or New Hampshire, if not sooner.”

“Billionaire investor Tom Steyer, who in the last decade has been both the top Democratic donor in the country and the prime engine for pushing for the impeachment of President Trump, appears ready to become Democratic candidate number 26,” The Atlantic reports.

“Last week in San Francisco, Steyer told staffers at two progressive organizations he funds, Need to Impeach and NextGen America, that he is launching a 2020 campaign, and that he plans to make the formal announcement this Tuesday.”