Billionaire and California governor hopeful Tom Steyer has been promoting the fact that big companies like utility giant PG&E are spending heavily against him — but his biggest rival captured what seemed to be schmoozy moments between him and the utility’s CEO.
A promotional account for former Health and Human Services chief Xavier Becerra, who is now the Democratic frontrunner a week before the primary, blasted Steyer over Memorial Day weekend for his alleged hypocrisy.
The account shared two screenshots, one of which was shared by Becerra himself on X, of posts showing a connection between the Democratic billionaire and Patricia Poppe, the CEO of PG&E.
One of the posts dated back to July 2025 by Steyer on his Instagram account where Steyer said “it was a pleasure” to join Poppe in Sacramento to chat about artificial intelligence’s energy needs.
“Less than a year ago, Tom Steyer was hanging out with PG&E CEO Patti Poppe,” said Friends of XB, which describes itself as the headquarters for Becerra. “But he’s a changed man! It was months ago!” it added sarcastically.
In another post on Sunday, Friends of XB captured a LinkedIn post by Poppe where Poppe said she “loved sitting down to talk the future of energy with Tom Steyer” at a summit hosted by Galvanize Climate Solutions, an investment firm co-founded by Steyer.
“Tom Steyer: PG&E hates me!” said the Becerra account. “PG&E CEO: Love hanging out with Tom Steyer!”
The California Post reached out to Steyer’s campaign for comment.
Steyer has insisted that the proof is in the money: the company has spent at least $10 million into a political action committee this year to prevent Steyer from winning the governor’s race.
Steyer has relished into branding PG&E as one of his top enemies as an appeal to his far-left voting base. In a campaign ad launched in December, he states that “PG&E really piss me off.” He blamed California’s sky-high energy bills on the corporation and pledged to cut utility rates by 25% by breaking up “the monopolistic power of utilities.”
Such promises have seemingly scared PG&E into fighting his campaign.
The utility company in response to Steyer’s utility proposals said it is already delivering energy “at lowest possible cost” and pointed to a $12 drop in typical residential monthly bills over the last two years, PG&E told SFGate.
Becerra has over the past few days been aiming many of his attacks on Steyer as the June 2 primary nears. Steyer has consistently polled at third place as he tries to make into one of the top two spots to advance to the general election.
The other spot beside Becerra appears likely to go to Republican Steve Hilton.
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