Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign | |
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Campaign | 2020 United States presidential election (Democratic primaries) |
Candidate |
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Affiliation | Democratic Party |
Announced | November 24, 2019[1] |
Headquarters | 229 West 43rd Street (8th floor in the old New York Times Building on New York City's Times Square)[2] |
Key people | Kevin Sheekey – campaign manager Kelly Mehlenbacher – deputy COO[3] Advisors: Howard Wolfson Jason Schecter |
Receipts | US$200,359,618.56[4] (12-31-2019) |
Slogan | Rebuild America Fighting for our future A new choice for Democrats Mike Will Get It Done I Like Mike |
Website | |
www |
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The Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign began when Michael Bloomberg, a businessman and former mayor of New York City, 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.[5] His principal campaign committee is called "Mike Bloomberg 2020, Inc."[6] The campaign officially launched on November 24, 2019.[7]
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".[8] 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.[9]
On November 7, 2019, Bloomberg 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.[10][11][12] After qualifying in Michigan, on November 12, he filed his candidacy for the Arkansas primary.[13] On November 13, he applied for the Tennessee ballot.[14] 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.[15]
Bloomberg has said he will begin his campaign with the Super Tuesday states, not competing in Iowa or New Hampshire.[16] 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".[17] The summit was on the same day as one of the Democratic presidential primary debates in Atlanta.[18] He missed the deadline to file in New Hampshire, thus reinforcing his planned strategy to focus on the Super Tuesday states on March 3,[19] 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.[20] 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.[20]
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;[21][22] and, at launch, Kevin Sheekey (communications, government relations & marketing head for Bloomberg LP) was campaign manager.[23]
On November 21, 2019, Bloomberg filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission to declare himself as a Democratic candidate for president,[6] though he said this was not a formal announcement, but a step towards making one if he decides to run.[24]
Bloomberg officially declared his candidacy on November 24, 2019, during a campaign event in Virginia[25][26] as well as in a campaign spot touting himself as a "doer and a problem solver" broadcast on YouTube[7] and on television, the latter in about 100 markets within the Super Tuesday states, which are to contribute about 40 percent of total pledged delegates at the Democratic National Convention.[27] Bloomberg announced that he would finance his campaign personally and would not accept donations.[28]
In addition to spending on advertising, Bloomberg's campaign set aside between $15 million to $20 million to register a half million voters in five battleground states that had swung to Trump in 2016.[29]
According to editor-in-chief John Micklethwait of Bloomberg News, because of Bloomberg's ownership of the News (which refrains from investigating its owner) as well as his candidacy in the Democratic Party primaries, it will likewise refrain from investigating rival candidates throughout the primaries.[30][31][32][33][34][35] If "credible journalistic institutions" publish investigative reporting about any of the candidates, the News will "either publish those articles in full or summarize them," Micklethwait said.[36] The Bloomberg Industry Group union, which does not represent News journalists, protested the ban;[37] a former Washington bureau chief at the News's, Megan Murphy, characterized it as "staggering" that "an army of unbelievably talented reporters and editors from covering massive, crucial aspects of one of the defining elections of our time";[38] and the Trump administration decredentialed News reporters from attending further 2020 Trump campaign events.[39]
The Atlantic notes that over the years, there have been numerous reports about the sexist work environment at Bloomberg News.[40]
Despite its promise not to investigate Bloomberg's presidential rivals, the news agency published a blistering report [41] on the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren campaigns and spending on Amazon office supplies ($233,348.51 and $151,240.90 respectively, in nine months). Sanders campaign speechwriter David Sirota joined journalists in slamming the report.[42] The article notes that Michael Bloomberg has not yet released his first campaign spending report.[41]
In the fourth quarter of 2019, Bloomberg spent $188 million on his presidential campaign, including $132 million on television ads, $8.2 million on digital ads, $3.3 million on polling, $1.5 million on rent, and $757,000 on airfare, including $646,000 for a private jet. By the end of January 2020, Bloomberg spent $300 million on his campaign and by February 2020 had exceeded $400 million.[43][44]
The campaign launched campaign ads in markets in every state nationally on December 4, 2019.[45] By December 31, 2019 - five weeks after declaring his candidacy - he had spent or committed $200 million on advertising, producing "an onslaught of campaign commercials with no precedent in Democratic politics".[46]
Bloomberg decided on an unconventional primary strategy: not to compete in the four states that have primaries or caucuses in February, but to focus his efforts on the multi-state primary elections in March on what is known as Super Tuesday.[47] When the first contest, the February 3 Iowa caucuses, produced a chaotic and uncertain outcome, he decided to double his television advertising in all the markets where he was already spending, and to increase his campaign staff to 2,000 people.[48]
Bloomberg's digital campaign set aside $100 million for anti-Trump social media ads in swing states.[29] By January 2020, Bloomberg spent an estimated $15 million on pay-per-click Google ads promoting his campaign on search results for terms including "impeachment", "climate change", and "gun safety".[49] In January 2020, Bloomberg spent $8.53 million in targeted Facebook ads.[50]
In addition to digital ads, Bloomberg's campaign recruited social media influencers to advertise online. The campaign used Tribe, a content marketplace for brands to solicit content from social media personalities, to offer a $150 payment to influencers who post a video or a still image with overlay text in support of Bloomberg.[51] Bloomberg's campaign worked with Meme 2020, a social media company led by Jerry Media CEO Mick Purzycki, to pay popular Instagram accounts to post "self-aware ironic" memes about Bloomberg.[52]
Bloomberg spent $10 million on a 60-second ad slot during Super Bowl LIV that aired on February 2, 2020.[53]
The Intercept reported on December 24, 2019,[54] 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.[55][56]
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.[54]
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.[57][58] 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.[58]
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.[59] 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."[60]
Bloomberg led the midnight vote in the tiny townships of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. Although not on the ballot in the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic primary, Bloomberg received three write-in votes in Dixville Notch: two in the Democratic primary and one in the Republican primary.[61][62]
On February 5, 2015, Bloomberg made comments at the Aspen Institute[63][64] and, while addressing issues of minority rights, policing policy, and gun control, Bloomberg had argued that in order to save young minority lives, police should confiscate guns from male minorities between ages 15 and 25. "These kids think they’re going to get killed anyway because all their friends are getting killed. So they just don’t have any long-term focus or anything. It’s a joke to have a gun. It’s a joke to pull a trigger." Bloomberg had said there that one method to lower the minority-on-minority homicide is to "throw them [young minorities] up against the wall and frisk them,"[65] thus making indirectly reference to Bloomberg's former approval of stop-and-frisk policies in New York City during his mayoralty, which policy he has more recently disavowed.[66] Referencing the higher rate of marijuana arrests among minorities, Bloomberg said, "One of the unintended consequences is people say, 'Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana. They’re all minorities.' Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do you do it? Because that’s where all the crime is."[65]
Donald Trump tweeted in response (in all caps), "Wow, Bloomberg is a total racist!"[67][68][69]
Describing Trump's tweet as "the latest example of his endless efforts to divide Americans" in a February 11 campaign website statement,[70] Bloomberg also said, "I inherited the police practice of stop-and-frisk, and as part of our effort to stop gun violence it was overused. By the time I left office, I cut it back by 95%, but I should’ve done it faster and sooner. I regret that and I have apologized."[71][72] On February 13, Bloomberg said during a campaign event in Houston that the policy derived from efforts to stop homicides but he had come to regret "unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids." "I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with black leaders and community members and listening to their stories. I heard their pain, their confusion, and their anger, and I’ve learned from them, and I’ve grown from them."[73]
National co-chair of Sanders's campaign Nina Turner called for Bloomberg to drop out of the race over the issue[74] and Sanders said at a February 16 dinner in Las Vegas, "Regardless of how much money a multibillionaire candidate is willing to spend on his election, we will not create the energy and excitement we need to defeat Donald Trump if that candidate pursued, advocated for and enacted racist policies like stop-and-frisk, which caused communities of color in his city to live in fear."[75][76]
Bloomberg had not yet declared his candidacy during most of the primary debates scheduled by the Democratic National Committee during 2019.[77][78] After his November declaration of candidacy, he did not meet the requirements to participate in the candidate debates in December 2019 and January 2020. The Democratic National Committee's guidelines regarding the scheduled debate on December 12, 2019 required participating candidates to demonstrate various thresholds of support including their receiving at least 4-percent support in four separate national approved by the DNC (or else 6 percent in two early state polls) as well as donations "from at least 200,000 unique donors overall, and a minimum of 800 unique donors in at least 20 states."[79] According to various national opinion polls conducted in early December, public support for Bloomberg's candidacy registered at around four percent.[80][81][82][83][84] However, because he is not accepting contributions he did not meet the requirement regarding donations.[85][86]
In early January 2020, Bloomberg's level of support compared to his Democratic primary rivals was 5.6% within Real Clear Politics's;[86][87] but again he failed to pass the individual donors requirement for invitation to the DNC's debate on January 14, 2020.[88][89][90][91]
On January 13, Bloomberg said about the issue, "People often ask me, 'Why aren't you in the debates? It's simple: the party requires candidates to have a certain number of donations, but I've never accepted a nickel from anyone. Unlike President Trump, I've always been independent of the special interests. I hope the DNC changes its rules—I'd gladly participate—but I'm not going to change my principles."[92] During the January debate, he tweeted an image of his face on a meatball and other odd pictures, which were poorly received by social media users.[93][94]
On January 31, 2020, the DNC changed its eligibility rules, eliminating the individual-donor threshold. The effect was to allow Bloomberg to participate in future debates if he meets the polling requirements.[95]
On February 18, 2020, Bloomberg qualified to participate in the February 19 debate in Nevada.[96] Bloomberg's debut debate performance was poorly received, with some pundits saying that his performance was "among the worst in the history of presidential debates", especially regarding his answers on stop-and-frisk, workplace harassment, and releasing women he allegedly harassed from their non-disclosure agreements.[97]
Main article: Political positions of Michael Bloomberg |
Bloomberg, who has said in an editorial he believes climate change cannot await favorable political winds, has funded Beyond Carbon, modeled on the effort he had previously co-founded along with the Sierra Club, Beyond Coal, which he credits as contributing to the closing of half of the U.S.'s coal-fired power stations.[98][99]
He has advocated for greatly expanding U.S. healthcare programs to create essentially a hybrid single-payer healthcare he has dubbed "'Medicare for all' for people that are uncovered."[98]
Bloomberg's "All-In Economy" agenda,[100] especially focused on assisting mid-sized cities in the economically lagging American heartland in their becoming economic growth generators,[101][102] would include increased federal funding for community-colleges, technical training programs, and job-creating research and development endeavors that "invest in college partnerships and apprenticeships that connect people with identifiable jobs and career paths";[103] provide to workers, whether gig work, contract and franchise employees, union organizing and collective bargaining rights;[103] increase to the national minimum wage to $15 an hour;[104][101][105] increase to the Earned Income Tax Credit; and, creating "Business Resource Centers" to assist entrepreneurs.[103]
Bloomberg's Greenwood Initiative aims to redress historic and institutional economic injustices that have affected Black Americans. The plan is focused on closing the economic gap between white and Black Americans by driving economic empowerment and helping to create generational wealth.[106]
Bloomberg said that he is open to spending 1 billion dollars to support the Democratic candidate in the presidential election, even if it will be Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. He said that he will not run ads against his rivals in the Democratic primaries.[107] Though on February 17, Bloomberg ran an attack ad against Sanders's supporters accusing them of using online bullying tactics to mute criticism of their candidate. The ad showed screenshots of Sanders supporters using memes, alleged threatening texts, and other tweets.[108]
Main articles: Everytown for Gun Safety, Beyond Coal, and Carnegie Corporation of New York |
Part of Bloomberg's long-time political modus operandi is funding of various nonprofits in support of such issues he supports as gun control (Bloomberg is the primary funder of Everytown for Gun Safety),[109] climate-change prevention,[110][111] and city innovation.[112]
Campaigning in Philadelphia in January 2020, referencing $80 million he spent supporting Congressional candidates in the 2018 midterm elections,[113] Bloomberg said, "I supported 24 candidates who were good on guns and good on environment, and 21 of them won, and that flipped the House. So if it wasn’t for that, you wouldn’t have [Speaker] Pelosi and you wouldn’t have impeachment."[114]
Main article: List of Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign endorsements |
Bloomberg has faced criticism by a few media outlets for "buying endorsements".[115][116][117] According to HuffPost, the presidential candidate donated millions of dollars to the Congressional candidates before later receiving their endorsements.[118] Charities controlled by Michael Bloomberg, such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, have reportedly given grants and training to city mayors throughout the country soon forming a network of mayors willing to support his campaign.[119] One incident reported by the Detroit Free Press had Bloomberg receiving an endorsement from Wayne County Executive Warren Evans after his campaign hired Evans's wife.[120]