‘What a waste’: How California’s billionaire tax campaign fell apart

POLITICO · Jeremy B. White · 2026-11-06 11:55 UTC

Internal divisions cost the campaign labor allies and left it short of resources to counter a $300 million opposition effort, clouding prospects for similar wealth-tax efforts elsewhere.

Internal divisions cost the campaign labor allies and left it short of resources to counter a $300 million opposition effort, clouding prospects for similar wealth-tax efforts elsewhere.

SACRAMENTO, California — As Democrats notch their biggest gains in decades, a landmark tax on California billionaires appears headed for defeat. It is a notable outlier as progressives elsewhere rode populist fervor to victory — and the campaign may have been undone as much by its backers’ own missteps as by opponents spending more than $300 million.

Long before the billionaire opposition formed, labor union leaders were deeply divided over the ballot proposal. The measure directed nearly all its revenue to health care, and its sponsor pushed ahead without broad consensus. Those rifts cost the campaign key endorsements, left it without enough moneyto mount a serious response and allowed billionaire opponents to magnify and exploit disagreements among groups that generally support taxing the rich.

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