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While Steyer said that he will still spend upwards of $50 million through his outside groups, it appears for now he is fully focused on the arduous task of rising through a pack of two dozen Democrats to capture the party's nomination to achieve his goal of removing Trump from office in November 2020.

In his announcement video released earlier this week Steyer focused heavily on what he describes as the corrosive effect money and corporations have had on American politics.

“I think people believe corporations have bought the democracy, that politicians don’t care about or respect them ... but are actually working for the people that rigged the system. Really what we’re trying to do is make democracy work by pushing power down to the people,\" Steyer said in a video which features an array of the faces of modern American corporate excess.

It’s true. I’m running for president. pic.twitter.com/u8x2lZah7Z

— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) July 9, 2019

For his first stop on the campaign trail, Steyer visited the critical early primary state of South Carolina, where he will have to make quick inroads with the African-American community if he wants to compete with the likes of former Vice President Joe Biden, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who have all made early investments in the state and have visited multiple times.

\"In South Carolina they cut the taxes for big corporations,\" Steyer said during a campaign stop Friday in Charleston. \"And that means they have to cut school bills, they have to cut education itself. They can't afford health care for everybody in the state of South Carolina. That's not because we don't have enough money. That's because corporations and the people who run and own them control our government, and want all the money, and the resources are not spread around the community.\"

ABC News' Briana Stewart contributed to this report.

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