Steyer speaks at a Fortune Brainstorm Green 2013 panel ‘Investors: Friend or Foe of Sustainability’. (Photo: Stuart Isett/Fortune Brainstorm Green)

Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer has donated more than $20 million to candidates and outside groups to influence this year’s election, making him the top individual contributor in 2014. And that’s just a fraction of the $50 million Steyer has said he’s willing to spend.

The San Francisco-based environmental activist built his fortune through the Farallon Capital hedge fund he founded in 1986. As he was amassing his warchest, Steyer enjoyed close ties to the Democratic Party and one particular influential Californian: Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi, the former House speaker who currently serves as Democratic leader, has used her Washington perch to boost some of Steyer’s projects with government aid.

In total, Steyer has benefited from more than $1 billion in taxpayer money. According to her own press releases, Pelosi is responsible for a share of that total.
An outspoken opponent of the Keystone XL Pipeline, Steyer is now using his fortune to spend “upwards of $50 million to back select Democrats” in this year’s elections, according to a profile in Forbes.

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