{"id":399,"date":"2026-05-19T22:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/californiamovingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/can-you-trust-that-post-about-tom-steyer-how-paid-influencers-are-flooding-into-the-governors-race\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:30:30","slug":"can-you-trust-that-post-about-tom-steyer-how-paid-influencers-are-flooding-into-the-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/californiamovingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/can-you-trust-that-post-about-tom-steyer-how-paid-influencers-are-flooding-into-the-governors-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you trust that post about Tom Steyer? How paid influencers are flooding into the governor\u2019s race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jaz Roche, also known to nearly 11,000 Tiktok followers as @spo0kymom, hawks facial cleansing bars, baby wagons and AI tools in short social media videos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more California community colleges crack down on fake students stealing financial aid<\/a><\/p>\n

On a website where clients can pay her to post videos about their products, she says she\u2019s based in Pennsylvania. Yet the content creator has taken an interest in the California governor\u2019s race lately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tiktok and Instagram accounts linked to Roche have posted 34 times in the past 10 days to boost the campaign of billionaire Tom Steyer or to criticize his main Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHear me out, I have something to admit,\u201d she says in the first video, posted May 8, on an account where she describes herself as a \u201cso-cal girlypop.\u201d \u201cI did not expect the most progressive governor candidate to be a billionaire. But look at the policies, you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

What she didn\u2019t say was that Steyer\u2019s campaign is paying her to say it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steyer, who has poured nearly $200 million into the most expensive primary campaign in state history, is under scrutiny for using paid social media influencers to post favorable things about him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is that legal?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom three years ago signed a law meant to bring transparency to the increasingly intertwined world of politics and content creators, enacting a law requiring influencers to be upfront in their posts about being paid by a political campaign. In one of the first tests of the law, regulators have opened an investigation into one of the Steyer influencer videos.<\/p>\n

But experts and transparency advocates aren\u2019t optimistic: The law was intentionally designed with no real penalties, and the agency responsible for enforcing it sometimes takes years to resolve investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where the \u2018Wild West\u2019 analogy becomes useful,\u201d said Dan Schur, a political science professor and former chair of the state\u2019s Fair Political Practices Commission.<\/p>\n

\u2018Inundate the internet\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Campaign finance filings from January through April 18 show Steyer has paid over $123,400 to at least eight influencers. The New York Times reported that includes $100,000 to Texas-based Latino mega-influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina, whose 14.3 million Tiktok followers are a coveted target for Democrats and who has endorsed Steyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The campaign is also paying over $870,000 to a digital media agency, Group Project Digital, that solicits creators to post daily videos about Steyer. The listing initially offered $10 per video; it was amended last week to offer $1,000 a month and now includes a sentence telling creators they need to disclose the payments.<\/p>\n

The state investigation covers just one of the influencer videos, in which content creator Isaiah Washington (known as @zaydante) did not disclose that Steyer\u2019s campaign paid him $10,000 for a now-deleted video. It was sparked by a complaint from a pair of political social media influencers who post frequently in support of Becerra.\u00a0On Tuesday, they filed another complaint alleging numerous additional paid, undisclosed posts, including from accounts in other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he\u2019s done is inundate the Internet in every way, shape and form to try and create an echo chamber,\u201d said Beatrice Gomberg, one of the complainants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the accounts they\u2019ve recently highlighted: @foosgonewild, which has posted memes, content about Southern California street culture and, on May 5, an interview with Steyer talking about his opposition to ICE. The account has 3.3 million followers on Instagram and 1 million on Tiktok.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Tiktok video has no disclosures. On Instagram, at the bottom of the video description, the account notes it\u2019s a partner with California-based social video firm Flighthouse. Neither the content creator nor Flighthouse responded to requests for comment. The Steyer campaign would not disclose how much it paid the firm.<\/p>\n

Steyer has defended soliciting influencers, saying they deserve to be paid for their work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Kevin Liao called Gomberg\u2019s first complaint \u201cbaseless\u201d and said the campaign specified in its contracts with all third-party content firms that they needed to include payment disclosures, satisfying the campaign\u2019s legal obligations under the state transparency law. The campaign doesn\u2019t review posts in advance, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked why the campaign had paid some creators who don\u2019t live in California, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t see why that\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cContent creators, wherever they\u2019re based, have followers in California,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Politics is all content now\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The blowback reveals the rising power and profitability of content creators in politics. One in five Americans regularly gets news on TikTok, rising to more than two in five for those under age 30. With traditional television hemorrhaging viewership and Americans hooked on the infinite scroll, campaigns are increasingly chasing posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They regularly hold events to court paid and unpaid influencers and sit for video interviews, aided by a new crop of talent agencies and digital media firms that represent influencers and solicit their content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The relationship has contributed to at least one politician\u2019s downfall: After attending a creator meeting for then-gubernatorial hopeful Eric Swalwell last fall, political influencer Arielle Fodor (aka @mrs.frazzled) received a flurry of messages warning her to stay away from him. It prompted her to post videos discussing rumors of his sexual misconduct, she has said. He quit the race after reporters covered several allegations of harassment and assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics is all content now,\u201d said Alex Stack, a Democratic consultant and former communications staffer for Gov. Gavin Newsom. \u201cCandidates need to be content creators and they need a little online army behind them to get traction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roche\u2019s videos about Steyer \u2014 some featuring her talking, some simply showing text praising Steyer over mundane videos of her life \u2014 have gotten no more than 1,100 views each. They\u2019re posted on accounts with fewer than two dozen followers, a far cry from the millions of Californians Steyer\u2019s TV ad spending blitz is reaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But they provide something critical for the billionaire candidate who\u2019s funding his own campaign: the impression of grassroots support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a briefing memo for creators obtained by CalMatters, the campaign\u2019s digital firm tells Tiktokers and Instagrammers that the \u201ctitle of billionaire is his biggest sticking point,\u201d and that the campaign wants to reach California women, Latinos and African Americans. The Sacramento Bee first reported on the memo.<\/p>\n

Read more Moving to California with a gun? You might have to take a four-hour course<\/a><\/p>\n

Organic content?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Advertisers covet creators regardless of audience size for their ability to portray a product endorsement as an organic recommendation from a friend. Candidates courting voters are no different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, an organization representing California lawyers is paying influencers to promote a ballot measure targeting Uber\u2019s responsibility for sexual assaults by its drivers. Matt Mahan\u2019s campaign for governor has also paid influencers and meme accounts for content boosting him. Instagram users see disclosures on those videos\u2019 descriptions.<\/p>\n

In the Los Angeles mayor\u2019s race, Karen Bass\u2019 challenger Spencer Pratt is offering money on social media gig platforms to make videos featuring viral-friendly soundbites of him.<\/p>\n

Serabeth Mullaney, a part-time San Francisco content creator promoting cat treats and AI tools, turned down an offer to make videos boosting Steyer\u2019s campaign because of her opposition to billionaires in politics. The 29-year-old said she gets most of her news from social media so she\u2019s concerned about the seep of paid political ads into influencer content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone desperate to make that (money), they\u2019re going to do the campaign,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether or not they believe in Tom Steyer, they\u2019re going to post those videos.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concern mirrors the state Fair Political Practices Commission\u2019s rationale for proposing the 2024 transparency law. Before that, campaigns only needed to disclose payment for ads they posted directly; paid content on third-party platforms was largely unregulated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the agency primarily relies on complaints to launch investigations, and violations of the law come with few consequences \u2014 no fines or criminal charges for creators or campaigns. The only thing the agency can do is ask a court to force an influencer to disclose payments, but experts say that\u2019s an expensive and time-consuming effort for a fleeting video.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat who authored the law, said paid influencers in politics are more prevalent than three years ago and lawmakers should make the requirements more enforceable.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparency is like whack-a-mole,\u201d Umberg said. \u201cEvery year there\u2019s a new modality, and so there\u2019s a new way to get around stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becerra\u2019s online army<\/h2>\n

Now the gubernatorial candidates and their supporters are engaged in a mass scrutiny of all the posts boosting each others\u2019 campaigns.<\/p>\n

Critics have also questioned the relationship between Becerra and numerous creators who have boosted his campaign since Swalwell dropped out. The Becerra campaign has insisted it has never paid any content creator for a post.<\/p>\n

The campaign seeks relationships with creators who are willing to post for free as a blend of campaign volunteer and reporter, said digital strategist Alf Lamont.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPaid influencer campaigns don\u2019t carry the kind of punch that organizing does,\u201d Lamont said. \u201cWe want to make sure we\u2019re getting folks who truly believe in it so we don\u2019t face the second-guesses and the \u2018paid by\u2019 and the feeling you\u2019re looking at something that\u2019s insincere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan \u201cJay\u201d Gonzalez\u2019s posts included lifestyle content, Latino advocacy and even salmon DNA facials before he started creating pro-Becerra videos on multiple platforms in March, a month before the campaign hired him as a full-time social media strategist. Gonzalez has recently been amending his posts with disclosures that he is paid by the campaign, \u201cout of extreme caution so as not to seem disingenuous to my audience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opponents point out Gonzalez and another creator who has posted numerous times in Becerra\u2019s favor, Maggie Reed or @mermaidmamamaggie, have previously charged for content. Antonio Villaraigosa\u2019s campaign solicited unpaid videos from both of them in the spring, and received quotes from each influencer\u2019s agent of $7,000 to $16,500, emails shared with CalMatters show. The Villaraigosa campaign confirmed the exchanges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Steyer\u2019s campaign filed a complaint alleging both influencers\u2019 videos were paid for by Becerra\u2019s campaign with no disclosure.<\/p>\n

Becerra\u2019s campaign has not reported any payments to Reed in campaign finance filings,\u00a0and Lamont denied paying either creator for content. Gonzalez, in an email, said that he had previously declined a paid offer from the Villaraigosa campaign. Reed did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u2018A SoCal girl\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Gomberg and Kaitlyn Hennessy, friends who met at a Becerra rally, have both posted frequently in favor of his campaign \u2014 for free, they say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair began sleuthing online in early May, eventually filing a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission last week alleging Steyer\u2019s campaign hired Roche, Washington and several other content creators to post on his behalf without disclosing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posing as another, unnamed campaign, they emailed creators offering paid political content work to prompt them to talk about posting for Steyer\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

One account, @isabel.speakss, purported to belong to a \u201cso cal girl sharing her thoughts\u201d named Isabel Mendoza and has exclusively posted about Steyer since May 9. The woman in the videos appears identical to Jade Johnson, a Florida-based influencer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another account, @jess.votes, is linked to another Florida content creator.<\/p>\n

Since the complaint was filed, Roche and the other creators have included disclaimers in their posts. None of them responded to inquiries from CalMatters asking if they knew about the campaign disclosure law. After a CalMatters reporter asked Johnson whether she was asked to pose as a California voter, the @isabel.speakss account on Monday afternoon removed the \u201cso cal\u201d description from its profile.<\/p>\n

None of those creators are listed in Steyer\u2019s latest campaign finance filings as subcontractors of any digital strategy firm. Steyer spokesperson Liao said they will appear in the next filing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CalMatters reached out to all the creators listed in the filings; none agreed to an interview. They include lifestyle influencers, comedians and musicians whom Steyer paid between $1,500 and $10,000, mostly through another firm, to post video interviews with Steyer or talk about his platform. One of them labeled her video a \u201cpaid partnership;\u201d others did not disclose campaign payments or have since deleted their videos.<\/p>\n

Read more Nancy Pelosi puts thumb on the scale in race for her successor. Here\u2019s who she endorsed<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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