Labor leader Dave Regan’s campaign to tax California billionaires ended in a decisive election defeat, earning him the unofficial distinction of the state’s biggest loser this cycle.
Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, spearheaded an unprecedented push to impose a one-time tax on California’s billionaires. The effort fueled an almost $400 million battle over three related state ballot measures.
By Tuesday night, the most contentious proposal, Proposition 40, was clearly headed for defeat, with nearly 56% of voters rejecting the wealth tax.
Regan’s other priority, Proposition 44, fared even worse. The measure would have required community health clinics to direct 90% of their revenue toward program services, but voters rejected it by 82%. The union and its political arm spent $17 million backing the failed initiative.
“His members should be driving him out with a pitchfork,” one California Democratic strategist told The California Post. “He should be embarrassed, but he won’t be because that’s just the kind of guy he is.”
The strategist estimated that Regan’s union has spent more than $100 million in members’ dues on unsuccessful ballot campaigns over the years, including previous efforts targeting dialysis clinics as well as this year’s billionaire tax and Proposition 44.
The latest defeats followed an embarrassing September episode in which Regan was accused of threatening female colleagues and assaulting former labor executive Courtni Pugh. Pugh is a Democratic operative with ties to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra who was working to defeat the billionaire tax.
SEIU-UHW’s committee supporting the billionaire tax reported $37.3 million in spending through Oct. 17. The union’s Proposition 44 committee reported an additional $11.1 million in expenses, producing little more than a 63-point loss.
Even before the results were announced Tuesday night, Regan was criticizing the spending by billionaires, describing their campaign as a “corrosive” advertising blitz.
Standing alongside Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna, Regan vowed to place another billionaire tax on the ballot in 2028 if lawmakers failed to make the ultrawealthy “pay their fair share.”
“Whatever happens tonight, the reality is … somehow lost in the flood of advertising over the last few weeks, is the reality that since the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ passed, 1.8 million Californians have lost their health insurance,” Regan said.
Regan and his progressive allies argued that Proposition 40 was needed to offset federal health care cuts enacted under President Trump. But with billions of dollars in wealth at stake, California billionaires organized more than $330 million in combined spending through multiple committees. Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone contributed more than $100 million.
Regan’s position within the union may now be uncertain.
Politico reported that SEIU International President April Verrett could suspend or expel him as the national union considers misconduct allegations and Regan’s counterclaims. Regan was reelected by a wide margin earlier this year.
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An investigation by a law firm substantiated several claims that Regan threatened union officials during the battle over the wealth tax, but found no support for his allegation that opponents had retaliated against him. Regan denied the accusations and said critics of the tax were using them to weaken his leadership.
The campaign has also raised questions about whether Regan and SEIU-UHW executives personally benefited from the effort. As of mid-October, the billionaire tax committee owed the union nearly $6.3 million, including $3.6 million for canvassing and nearly $638,000 identified as salaries for campaign workers, according to state records.
Suzanne Jimenez, SEIU-UHW’s chief of staff, told The California Post that a “political reckoning” for billionaires is still on the horizon.
“Billionaire-funded propaganda may mislead voters about the consequences of these cuts today, but as hospitals reduce services, emergency rooms close and families lose access to care, the truth will become increasingly difficult to hide,” Jimenez said.
“If Sacramento fails to protect patients and deliver a real solution that makes billionaires pay their fair share, healthcare workers will pursue every available avenue, up to and including returning to the ballot in 2028 with a billionaire tax.”
A source in California’s Democratic labor movement dismissed the allegations against Regan as internal infighting, saying his more serious problem with voters was the fractured progressive coalition behind the measure.
US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Khanna campaigned forcefully for the tax, and the state Democratic Party endorsed it. Newsom, Becerra, Planned Parenthood and the California Teachers Association, however, opposed the proposal.
That division “gave the billionaires a message to use beyond the losing message of ‘don’t tax us,’” the source said.
Thad Kousser, a political science professor, said Proposition 40’s defeat would likely be portrayed nationally as a “death knell for the wealth tax movement.”
Still, Kousser said a federal tax would have a better chance of achieving Regan’s goal because billionaires can relocate outside California—an argument also made by Newsom and Becerra.
Auto-loan billionaire Don Hankey, who was among the wealthy Californians reportedly considering leaving the state over Proposition 40, told The California Post he was “very pleased” by the measure’s defeat.
Asked about the tens of millions of dollars Regan’s union is estimated to have spent on losing ballot campaigns, Hankey said, “That just hurts everybody.”
Despite Proposition 40’s defeat, Hankey said he plans to keep his California residence as a place to visit.
“I still love California,” he said. “I’m also very happy in Las Vegas.”
