• by Ray Schultz , July 12, 2019

In addition to his own deep pockets, Tom Steyer has two advantages as he launches his 2020 Presidential campaign, Mother Jones reports. 

One is the Need to Impeach email list, containing 8.2 million contacts.

The other is the NextGen America email list.

Steyer founded both organizations. 

His campaign has rented both email lists -- more to attract the donors needed to quality for the Democratic debates than to raise cash.

The resulting emails link to the ActBlue page, which asks supporters to “donate just $1 today to help Tom get closer to the debate stage,” Mother Jones continues.

Steyer, a liberal candidate whose resources are said to rival those of the conservative Koch brothers, has invested $50 million in Need To Impeach, it adds.

He already is in the crosshairs of other Democrats. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has sent out an email, saying: “We need our candidates to compete to have the best ideas – not just to write themselves the biggest checks.”  

As reported, frontrunner Joe Biden also has had an email asset — the Obama campaign list, which pulled in $500 million in 2012. That list may have seen some churn in seven years, but Biden has presumably brought many of those donors into his own campaign.