Steyer endorses Biden for president

Former Democratic Presidential hopeful and billionaire Tom Steyer endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president on Thursday. 

The businessman told POLITICO in an interview that he plans to use his resources to get Biden elected, joining almost every candidate who dropped from the Democratic primary race in endorsing the former vice president. 

Steyer’s endorsement comes one day after Sanders suspended his presidential campaign. Sanders’s path to the nomination grew increasingly narrow after Super Tuesday, when he eventually ended up more than 300 pledged delegates behind Biden.  

In a speech following the announcement, Sanders said he wanted to focus his energy on his duties in the U.S. Senate during the coronavirus crisis. 

“I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and which would interfere with the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour,” he said.

Steyer told the news source said that sole Democrat left in the race is “going to have to show, in terms of policy, that [he] is more progressive than people understand him to be.” 

The billionaire, whose now-defunct campaign focused on climate change, joins other more liberal Democrats in asking Biden to embrace more progressive policies. On Wednesday eight progressive youth groups, including Steyer’s super PAC NextGen America, issued a list of demands that they want to see Biden adopt ahead of the general election. 

Steyer said the Biden campaign will have to earn the support of skeptical voters. 

“They have to be excited about the candidate — and I think that is something that is going to happen but the Biden campaign is going to have to reach out,” he said. “They’re going to have to reach out on climate — and show Joe Biden understands how important stopping climate change is, understands environmental justice at its roots, which he does.”