NOISY DOWNTOWN STREETS BEFORE DEMOCRATIC DEBATE WEDNESDAY

Tom Steyer 2020 Organizers

Californian billionaire Tom Steyer is decidedly a different sort.  When his fortune climbed to excess of $36 billion, he and his wife Catalina decided to commit half their fortune to promoting education and moral values.

His now three year campaign, calling for Donald Trump's impeachment, is also self-funded.

The Tom Steyer 2020 organizers pictured above, six African-Americans, one Hispanic and one Anglo, are part cheerleader, part psychologist, motivating from the podium, then mixing among the supporters with a more personal touch.

The Steyer supporters, numbering about fifty from eight states, all flown and accommodated by the campaign, were split into two shifts in order to promote Steyer on a street corner adjacent to the debate site.

Four street corners were populated by the Steyer, Biden, O'Rourke and Trump campaigns.  A small group representing Elizabeth Warren set up just a  few feet away from the Steyer group.

When the Steyer group started pro-Steyer chants with some power, the much smaller Biden group tried gamely to respond, but were no match for the R&B-sounding Steyer group.

Directly across to our left were two groups representing the President, "Gays for Trump" and the "Army of God," dressed in camouflage, carrying guns.  

When I approached the apparent leader of the "Army of God," he explained that they were true believers in God and Trump, then walked off.

It was a raucous afternoon before the debate with a heavy police presence.  Drones flew overhead, while airplanes towed campaign slogans across the sky.  Motorist honked in appreciation, mostly at the Steyer people.  A large semi-truck with a sign "Truckers for Wang" kept going back and forth, honking.