Guest Post: A Conversation with Tom’s Wife, Social Entrepreneur, and Advocate Kat Taylor

Tom is a fierce champion for working families—a fierceness matched by his partner of 43 years, Kat Taylor. With Tom as co-founder and board chair of Beneficial State Bank, as well as co-founder of TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation, she works to reform economies and rulemaking to co-create, with diverse frontline communities, social justice and environmental wellbeing for all.

TS Campaign: How did you and Tom meet?

Kat: I met Tom when we were both in graduate school. He was in the last of his two years, and I was in my first of four, which meant we were going to try to sustain our relationship over three years of separation. We had common friends from college, and I definitely noticed his charisma from afar. But the first time we actually met—and we have a totally different memory of this—I was running a track workout. A law school friend and I were running five one-mile repeats in 5 minutes and 45 seconds each, with a two-minute rest in between. I’d run track in college, and I was trying to run competitively in graduate school.

Anyway, I think I was on the fourth of the five miles, and Tom stepped up and said, “Hey do you mind if I run with you?” And I said, “Not at all, but we’re running a regimen. We’re running five 5:45s for four miles, and we’ll run as fast as we can on the last one.” So he steps on the track, and he immediately blows the pace. And I’m a competitive person, so I keep up with him. So then it’s time to do the fifth mile—which is his second mile—and he goes, “Do you wanna just dog it on this one?” And I said, “Absolutely not, that would be chicken shit.” So we both ran as fast as we could for the last. Sound familiar?

But that sort of embodies our entire relationship. We’ve actually shaped each other’s philosophies, values, and purpose through vigorous discussion of critical issues that hue a better solution together than we could apart, like an alloy forged in fire.

TS Campaign: What was Tom like back then?

Kat: So, I went to business and law school at the same time, and they were very different in culture. Business school was super confident, sometimes even super arrogant. Most competitive business people don’t allow an inkling of self-doubt. They never question whether they’re going to come out on top. And Tom, he is superlative at achievement. He was always at the absolute top of everything in school, in athletics and in business. And I knew this. But over our first meal ever together, I asked him what he did over the summer between business school years, figuring he’d had a very competitive job somewhere. So he says, well, I was selling air conditioners door-to-door, and it turned out I was really bad at it. I remember thinking, “Did you just say you were bad at something?” In business school, you didn’t hear people utter those words. He is the most amazing combination of excellence, humility, confidence, and independence I have ever met. And that’s true in this campaign, too.

TS Campaign: Tom has the most detailed plans to make California affordable of any candidate in this race, which speaks to his deep understanding of the issues impacting working families. What should voters understand about Tom as a leader—and potentially the next governor of California?

Kat: I don’t need to describe Tom with a string of adjectives like he’s some kind of honor Eagle Scout because the record is clear on that. What I really want people to know is how fiercely independent Tom is. I am the person who knows that best, so just trust me. But here’s why it matters. We have so much corruption in the system. And anybody who has enough power to change that can’t, because it’s where their power comes from. But Tom doesn’t need money from anybody else. He has no conflict of interest. He is not a professional politician. If you have enemies like Tom has, you must be doing the right thing.

He just wants to change the world for the better with the people and planet who deserve that. He is fiercely independent—I can personally attest to that. He is not bought and paid for. He has no sacred cows. He’s the kind of billionaire who says I am going to do what is right for the people and the planet. That’s why he’s the guy for this moment. Nobody else on that stage will take that on—and none of them could get it done if they did.

You know, leadership is lonely. It’s stepping away from the crowd, even if it means you don’t get invited for a beer or they turn you over to the violent mob. If it means doing the right thing, Tom is willing to be unpopular. And that’s what we need right now.

That’s what I wish people would know about him. He’s the most unique change agent necessary for these times. And we need that. Otherwise, we’re going to go further down the path of corruption and self-interest against the rest of us—all of these things that are literally killing us and choking the planet to death. But we are better people than that, and we have always been. There has always been a better way. So let’s go there together.

TS Campaign: What can you tell us about Tom personally that voters might not get to know?

Kat: He’s a very sincere person. He really does love people. When he talks about veterans and chokes up…when he defends trans youth, when he says it’s working people who died in the mud and fought for a system that enables people to build businesses and become billionaires…he’s serious about that. He believes in the power, promise, and worthiness of every single person. It’s only bad systems that put them in these terrible places. And we are fighting for shared power and prosperity. Nothing else will do.

TS Campaign: Is there anything else you’d like to share that might give us a glimpse into who your husband is?

Kat: One of his favorite songs is called the Balm of Gilead. It’s a Scottish spiritual hymn…a call to action. It’s meant to give people courage. He loves those kinds of things. He believes in the power of art. He hosts a poetry luncheon every year where we read poems out loud, which is very fun. Every family toast includes singing. I sing every time I speak because we need creativity to remember who we are.

We still love to run together. He ran Hood-to-Coast and I ran Calistoga to Santa Cruz, but we couldn’t do it together because one of us had to be home with the kids. We also share a love of backpacking—we even went on our honeymoon. He’s trying to bag all fourteen of the 14,000-foot peaks in California. I did the first four, maybe five, with him, but then they get more technical. I don’t like being tied to a rope and hanging over a thousand feet of rock. But we’re very outdoorsy people. We love to play sports. When the kids were younger, Tom enjoyed following them in sports.

TS Campaign: We had a chance to speak to three of your kids—Evi couldn’t join because of the nature of her work. But it was so clear how much they enjoy each other’s company. It’s a testament to both of you.

Kat: Thank you. You know, I think our finest accomplishment is to have children who love each other and want to be together. And of course, Evi supports Tom wholeheartedly, but there are rules she has to observe, so the rest of our family will carry her torch. (BTW, not as a spoiler, but Evi and Tom are two of the most voracious readers even in a family of readers!) Storytelling is a really big part of Tom’s life and of our family life. Our son Gus is named for a character in Lonesome Dove. Augustus McCrae, who is one of the great characters in life, and Sam is actually named after Sam Shepherd, the playwright. Our family read and listened to books together every night because we are all people of oral traditions first, and that’s just fun, but also humanity.

TS Campaign: What would you tell voters suspicious about Tom’s motivations? How would you convince them he’s sincere?

Kat: We are very devoted to working people and to labor. Capital has been beating up on labor for centuries, and it’s just got to stop. Tom is very validated on that commitment, and I have been on that campaign forever. We’ve supported a lot of labor unions. We’ve banked a lot of labor unions. Beneficial State Bank, the community bank we founded, is the first bank to unionize in 40 years. And that’s not an accident. It’s because banks are openly hostile to labor unions. They’re the biggest enemy labor unions have. But Beneficial State Bank was built on mutualism and cooperation.

So that commitment to working people is real, credible, and verifiable. And it just makes sense. Who are we for if we’re not for working people? And how is it you can work 40, 60, 80, 120 hours a week and still have to live under a freeway ramp? That doesn’t make any sense. Poverty is not natural. Mutualism is the best thing we could do for ourselves and each other. We can do better together than we can apart. Tom and I fiercely believe that.

TS Campaign: What’s made you proudest of him in this race for governor?

Kat: Well, I honestly think Tom is really, really brilliant in the ways that matter. Like when he talks about trans athletes. People who oppose trans athletes being able to play high school and college sports are thinking about the competitive needs of the generalized population. They can’t empathize. But they’re not standing in the shoes of trans athletes. Half of trans youth try to kill themselves. That should stop every other conversation. That is a national emergency. Why do high school sports matter more than that? How can that be true? I don’t think we should ever separate smartness from kindness. I don’t have any respect for smartness without kindness.

I learned very early on to try to see around corners. This is an inflection point in civilization where we need a lot of people to see around the corners at once and to crowdsource solutions. If we let big commercial solar own all of energy generation, we have a problem. If we let AI own all of the data centers, we have a problem. If we let big food own the means of food production, we have a problem. And these and other problems are going to hit low-power communities first—marginalized communities that lack political power, who bear the brunt of othering, historical abuse, and racism, and everything else.

Right now, it feels like everything is just happening to us, and it’s important to remind people that they still have a say. They can still be part of a solution, even though it doesn’t feel that way. We need to share power again. But to do that, we’re going to have to free our minds of conventional thinking.

This is the moment where we have to get this right. I believe Tom Steyer can see around some of these corners. And I do love him with all my heart and all my soul.