Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign
The 2020 presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg, a businessman and former mayor of New York City, began when he filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission for the office of President of the United States as a member of the Democratic Party on November 21, 2019.[7] His principal campaign committee was called "Mike Bloomberg 2020, Inc."[8] The campaign officially launched on November 24, 2019, in Virginia, later than most other candidates for the Democratic nomination.[9]
Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign
- Michael Bloomberg
- Mayor of New York City (2002–2013)
November 21, 2019
November 24, 2019[1]
March 4, 2020[2]
229 West 43rd Street (8th floor), New York City[3]
Kevin Sheekey – campaign manager
Kelly Mehlenbacher – deputy COO[4]
Advisors:
Howard Wolfson
Jason Schecter
Rebuild America
Fighting for our future
A new choice for Democrats
Mike Will Get It Done
Prior to launching his campaign, Michael Bloomberg had been vocal in encouraging the Democratic Party to field a candidate with the best chance of defeating incumbent President Donald Trump. His political positions had included gun control, climate change prevention, and city innovation. Bloomberg opted not to compete in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, instead beginning his campaign with the Super Tuesday states. He financed his campaign personally and refused donations. He spent over five hundred million dollars of his own money on his campaign, one of the greatest single campaign expenditures in American history.[10] His campaign heavily relied on advertising, including the use of nationally aired television ads, social media influencers, and billboards in high-visibility locations.
Bloomberg dropped out of the race on March 4, 2020, after winning only the territory of American Samoa on Super Tuesday while missing the 15% threshold for proportional delegates in several states.[2] He subsequently endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for the nomination, and announced an effort to use his campaign infrastructure to support Biden's primary bid and the eventual nominee.[11] His lack of success among voters was attributed to poor debate performances, his former approval of stop-and-frisk in New York City and allegations of a sexist working environment at his company, Bloomberg LP.[12]
Background[edit]
Michael Bloomberg is a billionaire businessman who ran as a Republican for Mayor of New York City in 2001, serving from 2002 to 2013. At various times in his life, he has been a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent. On March 5, 2019, Bloomberg announced that he would not run for president in 2020; instead he encouraged the Democratic Party to "nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump".[13] Sometime during the spring of 2019, Bloomberg also founded Hawkfish, a data and tech start-up focused on supporting Democratic candidates. The company was reportedly active in Virginia and Kentucky elections before shifting focus to the Bloomberg campaign.[14] On October 14, 2019, a day before the Democratic Party's fourth presidential debate, it was reported that Bloomberg was "still looking at" entering the race if Joe Biden were to drop out, but that "nothing can happen unless Biden drops out", according to an unnamed source reported to be close to the situation.[15] Fellow billionaire Warren Buffett had expressed his approval of a potential Bloomberg presidential campaign as early as February 2019.[16][17]
Activities prior to campaign launch[edit]
In March 2019, Bloomberg originally announced that he would not run for president.[18]
However, on November 7, 2019, Bloomberg changed his mind and announced that he was taking steps to enter the 2020 United States presidential election, and on November 8 he officially filed for the Alabama Democratic presidential primary.[19][20][21] After qualifying in Michigan, on November 12, he filed his candidacy for the Arkansas primary.[22] On November 13, he applied for the Tennessee ballot.[23] On November 19, he gave three separate transactions of $106,500 to the Democratic National Committee along with $800,000 to the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund.[24]
Bloomberg has said he will begin his campaign with the Super Tuesday states, not competing in Iowa or New Hampshire.[25] He did not attend his company's second annual New Economy Forum in Beijing on November 20, a sign that his developing presidential campaign was now "dead serious".[26] The summit was on the same day as one of the Democratic presidential primary debates in Atlanta.[27] He missed the deadline to file in New Hampshire, thus reinforcing his planned strategy to focus on the Super Tuesday states on March 3,[28] Another sign of his presidential run came when the University of Minnesota cancelled Bloomberg's scheduled lecture at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs on December 5, 2019, saying that it could be unlawful and against university policy to host him for such a lecture if he is a candidate.[29] Bloomberg's "Everytown for Gun Safety" political bloc had previously contributed large sums of money to many Democrats running in the 2018 Minnesota statewide and legislative elections.[29]
Headquartered at facilities provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the campaign's staff at pre-launch included senior advisors Howard Wolfson, communications adviser Jason Schecter, advertising creator Bill Knapp, pollster Doug Schoen along with sometimes Bloomberg Philanthropies CEO Patti Harris and political consultants Brynne Craig, Mitch Stewart, and Dan Wagner;[30][31] and, at launch, Kevin Sheekey (communications, government relations & marketing head for Bloomberg LP) was campaign manager.[32]
On November 21, 2019, Bloomberg filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission to declare himself as a Democratic candidate for president,[8] though he said this was not a formal announcement, but a step towards making one if he decides to run.[33]
Criticism and controversies[edit]
Transphobic comments[edit]
In 2020, Buzzfeed News unearthed video footage from 2019 of Bloomberg at a Bermuda Business Development Agency gathering, where he questioned the effectiveness of Democratic politicians campaigning on transgender rights, saying "If your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that's not a winning formula for most people." These comments were widely criticized as transphobic for referring to transgender individuals as "it" and "some guy in a dress." Bloomberg claimed that this comment "was a poor attempt to describe how some who oppose transgender equality think about this issue" and that "those words do not reflect my unwavering support for equality for transgender Americans.” A Bloomberg spokesperson responded to critics by pointing out that Bloomberg "signed a sweeping transgender civil rights bill into law" in April 2002.[72][73][74][75]
Prison phone bank[edit]
The Intercept reported on December 24, 2019,[76] that the Bloomberg campaign had unwittingly used prison labor to support the campaign. Call center ProCom was contracted to make calls through a third-party vendor; two of the company's call centers are located in state prisons in Oklahoma. Female inmates at the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center called voters in California, ending the calls by revealing that the calls were paid for by the Bloomberg campaign but without mentioning they originated in a prison. The Bloomberg campaign acknowledged the calls but said they were unaware the calls originated in a prison and they have since severed ties with the company.[77][78]
ProCom said the company pays the Oklahoma minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, which then pays the people working in the call centers. Documents from the Department of Corrections indicate they pay a maximum monthly wage for the incarcerated of either $20.00 or $27.09 per month.[76]
Plagiarized campaign materials[edit]
In February 2020, an analysis by The Intercept found that the Bloomberg campaign had plagiarized portions of its published policy proposals from news outlets, research publications, non-profit organizations, and policy groups without attribution.[79][80] The report found that sections of the campaign's fact sheets for its plans on maternal care, LGBTQ equality, mental health, infrastructure, economy, tax policy, and mental health contained exact passages – ranging from individual sentences to full paragraphs – pulled from sources including CNN, CBS, Time, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the American Medical Association, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Building America's Future Educational Fund, the latter two of which Bloomberg co-founded or financed.[80]
In response to the report, Bloomberg's campaign released a statement asserting that the lack of attribution resulted from its use of the email service, MailChimp, that it used to distribute the campaign material, explaining that MailChimp does not support footnote citations formatting.[81] The campaign added, "When we announce policy platforms, we put together detailed fact sheets with context and supporting background, so that reporters understand the problem we're trying to solve with our policy...We have since added citations and links to these documents."[82]
Post campaign[edit]
Bloomberg suspended his campaign on March 4, 2020, and he endorsed the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign.[155] On March 20 he announced that he would transfer $18 million to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He made a $2 million donation to the black voter registration group Collective Future and $500,000 for Voto Latino to register new voters. He has pledged to spend $15 million to $20 million to register voters in five purple states. In addition, he announced a $2 million donation to the progressive group Swing Left to help Democrats in competitive races. He donated $5 million to Stacey Abrams's Fair Fight 2020 to encourage voter-registration and oppose voter-suppression measures.[156]
Despite having promised his campaign staff they would be guaranteed jobs through November, on March 20 Bloomberg announced he was laying off his staff, although some may be hired by the DNC or other campaigns. The announcement came during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[157] Former staff filed a class-action suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 23. The Bloomberg campaign noted that some former staffers had already been hired by the DNC and all former staffers were guaranteed health care coverage through April.[158] On April 27, 2020, Bloomberg announced that he would pay health care costs for campaign workers through November 2020.[159]