Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is directing tens of millions of dollars of his personal fortune to help Democrats flip the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections.
The left-of-center billionaire has championed liberal policies on gun control, immigration, and the environment and has approved a plan to pour $80 million into advertising for candidates in over a dozen districts where President Trump is unpopular, the New York Times reports.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported that in April it had more money in the bank than its rival GOP fundraising arm, reporting $61.8 million at the end of April. The National Republican Congressional Committee had $59.6 million.
Bloomberg, who has shifted between parties for years, is now committed to helping the Democrats win the 23 congressional seats they’ll need to have a majority, although he has not yet announced which races he will get involved in.
“I’ve never thought that the public is well-served when one party is entirely out of power, and I think the past year and a half has been evidence of that,” said Bloomberg. Republicans, he continued, “have done little to reach across the aisle to craft bipartisan solutions — not only on guns and climate change, but also on jobs, immigration, healthcare, and infrastructure.”
