Tom Steyer’s campaign apologized, and one of his campaign aides resigned after he improperly downloaded campaign data belonging to Democratic presidential primary rival Kamala Harris.
Dwane Sims, who was the Steyer campaign’s South Carolina deputy state director, gained access to thousands of Harris volunteer contacts last week through previous employment with the South Carolina Democratic Party. The Steyer campaign told NBC News that it lost access to South Carolina Democratic Party data due to a miscommunication about payment, and when it was restored, Sims regained permissions that he had when he worked for the state party and thought he was accessing Steyer campaign data rather than that of Harris, a California senator.
After an internal investigation, Sims resigned on Monday.
“The Steyer campaign takes this issue very seriously. When we first learned about the matter, we conducted an internal investigation and wiped Mr. Sims’ computer to make sure the data was completely deleted and that there was no access to other campaign data. We understand the sensitivity and importance of this information,” Steyer campaign manager Heather Hargreaves said in a statement Monday. “We apologize to the South Carolina Democratic Party and the DNC. Tom Steyer and the Steyer campaign extend our deepest apology to Senator Kamala Harris and her campaign.”
Steyer’s campaign said that it notified the South Carolina Democratic Party “within minutes” of the breach. Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa, however, told the Post and Courier that Sims downloaded the Harris data three minutes after he notified the party.
“We are talking about 180 seconds in a system that is notoriously inaccurate,” Steyer campaign spokesman Alberto Lammers said. “And the DNC is not disputing the key fact that our employee proactively approached them to inform them of the matter. The bottom line is that nothing would have taken place if the DNC had been more diligent about the security of voter data.”
Despite the apology, the Harris campaign fundraised off the data breach in a Tuesday email to supporters.
“A staffer for Tom Steyer, a billionaire who has already spent tens of millions of his own dollars to boost his candidacy, stole our campaign’s data in South Carolina,” the email said. “Our organizers have spent months building one of the strongest operations in the state, so we were outraged to learn Steyer’s team had taken volunteer contacts — some of our campaign’s most valuable data — directly from the voter file.”
Steyer, a billionaire who made his fortune in hedge funds and has founded liberal advocacy organizations, poured $47.6 million of his own money into his presidential campaign from his July launch through the end of September.
[Also read: Tom Steyer: A GOP victory in 2020 ‘could be the end of the world’]
