Michael Bloomberg will form a new political organization that will absorb large swathes of his 2020 campaign staff and infrastructure as he looks to help Joe Biden beat Bernie Sanders and President Trump.
Bloomberg, 78, quit the Democratic race for the White House this week promising to “work” in assistance of the two-term vice president for the rest of the primary and in the general election.
Bloomberg’s creation of a new independent expenditure operation, first reported by the Washington Post, was essential to that plan, given strict campaign finance laws prevent him from simply gifting the eventual nominee with his 2,000-plus team and data cache. He also faces a personal cap when it comes to donating.
Along with keeping Bloomberg offices open in six key battleground states, the group will allow the billionaire former New York City mayor to spend big on advertising against Trump and congressional Republicans, though he can’t coordinate directly with the Democratic campaign. He doled out more than $500 million for airtime during his own failed bid.
Bloomberg offices in states other than Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin will be shuttered in the coming weeks. The investment, however, is still an advantage going into a fall fight against Trump and his existing reelection infrastructure.
Bloomberg has not nixed the idea of deploying the network, the name of which is still pending, to boost Biden against Sanders in the primary.
To placate nervous Democrats, Bloomberg, an information services entrepreneur worth in excess of $50 billion, has long promised not to launch an independent, third-party effort for the White House.
While Biden has been receptive to his assistance, Sanders, the Vermont senator and chief rival for the nomination, has not.
“I don’t think we’re going to need that money because, interestingly enough, I think, when you have an agenda, as we have, that speaks to the needs of working families. You can have millions and millions and millions of people chipping in 10 bucks a piece,” Sanders said in February after being asked multiple times.
