Steyer passes on California Senate run

Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer said Thursday he would not be running for a California Senate seat in 2016.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, had said he would consider throwing his hat in the ring after Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said she would retire in 2016. 

{mosads}”I believe my work right now should not be in our nation’s capital but here at home in California, and in states around the country where we can make a difference,” Steyer wrote Thursday in The Huffington Post.

Steyer’s exit keeps state Attorney General Kamala Harris as the front-runner in the open seat contest. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is also mulling a bid, along with several other Democrats. 

The environmentalist skyrocketed to the front of the political scene ahead of the 2014 midterms when he vowed to make climate change a key issue in critical races. 

Steyer said his decision would rely on whether or not he would be able to evoke more change on action to tackle global warming in the Senate versus his current work through the political action group NextGen Climate. 

In his statement on Thursday Steyer stressed the need to have more “leadership in government and outside of government that is committed to environmental justice, economic justice, and education justice.”

But in the end, Steyer concluded the best place for him lay outside Congress. 

“This was a very hard decision,” Steyer said. “The U.S. Senate offers a unique opportunity to serve, but I also know that we will have excellent candidates.”  

A source close to Steyer said he reasoned that he could do more in California to advance action on climate change. 

The lack of a consensus in Washington meant more could could be done “from the outside to change the dynamic,” the source said.

Steyer decided not to run shortly after hearing President Obama’s State of the Union, which made whim realize his work at NextGen “was making a difference” and that he “needed to double down” on a strategty focused on “accelerating” the “politics of climate at the national level.”

To do that, the Steyer ally said, work on the ground in California for substantial policy would be the best way to “set the example” for the country.

Steyer is still leaving his options wide open to pursue public office in the future, specifically California’s governorship in 2018.

This post was updated at 4:12 p.m.