© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Billionaire Democrat Steyer Kicks Off His Campaign to Impeach Trump in Columbus

photo of Tom Steyer at Need to Impeach Town Hall
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer is taking his TV and online campaign to impeach Trump on the road with a series of town halls.

A billionaire Democratic fundraiser who’s been running a TV and online campaign to impeach President Trump has launched a series of at least 30 town hall meetings around the country, kicking off in Columbus. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler was at the first session last night.

Not a protest
This could be described as the opposite of a Trump rally. Around 150 attendees sat in padded straight-back chairs in the basement ballroom of the YWCA in Columbus, listening to California hedge fund manager-turned-progressive activist Tom Steyer share his thoughts behind his “Need to Impeach” campaign.

'It's been brewing for a long, long time, both on the Democratic and Republican side.'

There were several moments of loud applause and spontaneous shouts. But there were no signs, no chants, and no protests. Just an hour of pointed anti-Trump rhetoric, such as: “We view this president and this campaign as a fight for the soul of America.”

Left-leaning crowd
Steyer had said he would be making the case for impeachment to Democrats, Independents and Republicans. But the audience was overwhelmingly left-leaning. Sandy Callahan came up from Lancaster to hear Steyer’s pitch.

“I’ve watched the ads and he’s been the person who has been saying out loud what I’ve been thinking for months and months. And he’s been the only one I’ve heard say it out loud. So I wanted to know more about him,” Callahan said.

Callahan lives with her son David Clayton-Ready, who recently moved to Ohio.

photo of David Clayton-Ready and Sandy Callahan
Credit KAREN KASLER / STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
David Clayton-Ready and Sandy Callahan went to the town hall after seeing Steyer's ads.

“I think that the reason we have something like Need to Impeach to begin with is kind of a symptom of the whole problem – it’s not just Trump. It’s been brewing for a long, long time, both on the Democratic and Republican side,” said Clayton-Ready.

Phyllis Elmo from Columbus is already active in progressive politics. She’s even helping write cards to voters in recent elections in Alabama and Pennsylvania.  She’s glad to see Steyer start this series of town halls to supplement his TV ad and online campaign.

“I’m really happy he’s doing it, and I’m also happy he has enough money to do it, which unfortunately has become necessary in these days,” said Elmo.

A 'digital army'
Columbus environmental advocate Carolyn Harding is among the 5 million people who’ve signed Steyer’s online impeachment petition. She has no concerns about what he’ll do with what he’s called a digital army of activists.

“I knew that when I gave him my email. I knew that I’d be in his database. But I’m very transparent about what I stand for,” said Harding.

Steyer said he’s assembled the largest grassroots organization in the U.S. He plans to spend $30 million on ads and town halls in this midterm election year. He was asked why he wasn’t pouring the money into state and local elections instead.  

“We’re doing phone banking. We’re using snail mail. We’re using all of the online means of reaching people because as far as we’re concerned, everything you’re talking about, we’re doing,” Steyer said.

Steyer’s series of town halls begin in Ohio, a state that voted for Trump but has a Trump critic as governor. Steyer did say he watched John Kasich in the 2016 debates and on TV since then, but says he’s never met him.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.