Tom Steyer Pays $100,000 to Carlos Eduardo Espina
Tom Steyer’s campaign paid carlos eduardo espina $100,000 while spending more than $123,400 on at least eight influencers from January through April 18. The payments came as Steyer pushed his California governor bid with nearly $200 million behind it. Some of the posts tied to that effort were not disclosed as paid.
California Governor Campaign
Campaign finance filings show the Steyer operation paid influencers from January through April 18, with Espina the largest named recipient in the records. Espina is a Texas-based Latino influencer with 14.3 million TikTok followers, and he has endorsed Steyer.
Steyer’s campaign is also spending more than $870,000 on Group Project Digital, a digital media agency that solicits creators to post daily videos about Steyer. The agency’s listing initially offered $10 per video, then was amended last week to offer $1,000 a month and add a sentence telling creators they need to disclose the payments.
Disclosure Rules In California
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law three years ago requiring influencers to be upfront when a political campaign pays them. Regulators have opened an investigation into one Steyer influencer video after a complaint from a pair of political social media influencers who support Xavier Becerra.
Isaiah Washington, known as @zaydante, did not disclose that Steyer’s campaign paid him $10,000 for a now-deleted video. On Tuesday, the pair filed another complaint alleging numerous additional paid, undisclosed posts, including from accounts in other countries.
Jaz Roche, also known as @spo0kymom, posted videos boosting Steyer or criticizing Becerra, and her TikTok and Instagram accounts linked to her posted 34 times in the past 10 days. In a May 8 video, Roche said, "Hear me out, I have something to admit," and later added, "I did not expect the most progressive governor candidate to be a billionaire. But look at the policies, you guys."
Echo Chamber Strategy
Dan Schnur, a political science professor and former chair of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, called the situation useful as a test of the state’s disclosure rules. "This is where the ‘Wild West’ analogy becomes useful," Schnur said.
Beatrice, a political social media influencer who supports Becerra, described the strategy in starker terms: "What he’s done is inundate the Internet in every way, shape and form to try and create an echo chamber," she said.
The next pressure point is the state inquiry already underway, alongside the newer complaint alleging additional undisclosed posts. For voters trying to judge what they are seeing online, the relevant line is simple: paid political content is supposed to be labeled, and the Steyer campaign’s influencer push is now being measured against that rule.
