The SITH LORD running for Senate: Controversial California art collector, 53, launches GOP bid for seat left by late Dianne Feinstein after becoming disillusioned by ‘hypocrisy of the left’

The art world’s so-called “Sith lord” has launched a bid for the Senate as a Republican, citing his disappointment with the “hypocrisy of the left.”

Stefan Simchowitz, who built a fortune thanks to his unorthodox approach to art, is running an unlikely campaign for a seat held by Dianne Feinstein in California, who has voted Democratic for the past 32 years.

The 53-year-old Los Angeles native is known for his controversial strategy of reaching out to struggling artists directly and buying their work before selling it to collectors, with many accusing him of taking advantage of young creators.

Simchowitz – a self-described “centrist, progressive, borderline Democratic Republican” – shared The free press he’s running because progressive policies have flooded cities like LA with crime, drug addiction and homelessness, while taxes and home prices continue to rise.

‘Why am I running as a Republican? Because I have seen the hypocrisy of the left up close and it is unfathomable. I really hate it. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves,” the ex-Democrat said.

Simchowitz – a self-described “centrist, progressive, borderline Democratic Republican” – said he is running because progressive policies have left cities like LA overrun with crime

Simchowitz, who is Jewish, said the final push for his Senate run came after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel

“We need a centralized, entrepreneurial government that makes hard-core leadership decisions that may be socially unpopular, like rounding up 150,000 homeless people in California and placing them in MASH camps run by the military.”

Simchowitz said he recently withdrew his 14-year-old son from a private school in LA because of the DEI bureaucracy and social justice politics.

‘He learned nothing. Every day was a social justice course,” the candidate said.

“The whole lens of the world for young people is focused on these morals: rich, poor, colonizer, colonized,” he added.

However, Simchowitz, who calls his worldview the New Republican Agenda, is still largely liberal in his politics — he is pro-choice, pro-drug legalization, and for free health care and student debt forgiveness, he told The Free Press.

Simchowitz, who is Jewish, said the final push for his Senate election came after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, when he said anti-Semitism became more tangible.

But he knows he won’t win the seat, and told The Free Press he plans to form a PAC called Simco for America to support young candidates who align with his politics.

“When you know you’re going to lose, sometimes all you can do is win,” he said.

The California Senate primary is Tuesday, with California Rep. Adam Schiff leads the pack of candidates.

Simchowitz started collecting unique stamps as a hobby when he was a child in South Africa.

Simchowitz said he recently withdrew his 14-year-old son from a private school in LA because of the DEI bureaucracy and social justice politics.

Simchowitz is known for reaching out to unknown artists directly on Facebook and Instagram and offering to buy their work before then selling it to other collectors. He can be seen with actor Sam Trammell

He is known for reaching out to unknown artists directly on Facebook and Instagram and offering to buy their work before then selling it to other collectors.

The subsequent buyers then flip the artwork at auction for big profits, meaning the works of new, emerging artists are sold on the market for unsustainably high prices, causing ‘career booms’.

Art critic Jerry Saltz once described Simchowitz as a sith lord — after saying that “any attempt to further control the system, unlike me, will suffocate them and suffocate the artist.”

Some of the earliest works Simchowitz acquired, after perusing Manhattan’s SoHo galleries while working as a film producer in New York, included art by Tauba Auerbach and Sterling Ruby.

Auerbach’s pieces have fetched as much as $2.285 million in recent years, while Ruby’s work has sold for $1.78 million at auction in the past.

Simchowitz’s goal, however, is to find budding masterpieces when they’re still cheaper than $5,000.

He also began funding artists and helping them produce work that he bought and sold, such as Jonathan Monk’s rabbit sculptures ‘The Inflated Deflated’ and Petra Cortright and Lily Ramírez’s striking colorful pieces.

Cortright – whose shared art life with Simchowitz began in 2011 when he messaged her on Facebook. Her bright works often cost as much as $65,000.

Simchowitz has multiple 11,000 square foot warehouses in Los Angeles where he stores his immense collection – which includes more than 25,000 works of art

Simchowitz has several 11,000-square-foot warehouses in Los Angeles where he stores his immense collection, which includes more than 25,000 works of art. In 2021 he opened his first gallery in California.

Speaking to WSJ, Simchowitz said, “I’m one of the bad guys that ends well. Maybe I started out as a devil, but it’s better to do that and end up an angel than the other way around, right?’

Despite the good he does for emerging artists, there are traditionalists within the art world who refuse to work with him and deny that he is a trendsetter in his own right.

Dealer Tim Blum tells him he doesn’t want to sell anything – and finds it ‘creepy’ that Simchowitz finances young artists.

“Just thinking about it makes my stomach sick,” he said.