Mike Bloomberg leapfrogged to fourth place nationally among Democratic primary voters in a fresh poll after swamping competitors with advertising on television and social media.
The former New York mayor hit 10% in a Morning Consult survey released on Wednesday, 2 percentage points ahead of Pete Buttigieg, who is in contention to win the Iowa caucuses. The steady national rise of Bloomberg’s late-entry candidacy has been fueled by nearly a quarter-billion dollars in advertising on television and social media platforms that the billionaire media mogul is financing with his own money.
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Bloomberg trails front-runners Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, the top three choices among Democratic primary voters, who are at 29%, 24%, and 15%, respectively. But the 77-year-old’s personal favorability has risen 8 points to a net 31% positive. This overall movement in Morning Consult’s tracking suggests Bloomberg’s unconventional campaign strategy cannot be dismissed.
[Also read: Michael Bloomberg steals Tom Steyer’s impeachment thunder]
He is skipping Iowa and the other early primary states in a bid to commandeer the Democratic contest by focusing on the 14 states scheduled to vote on “Super Tuesday,” March 3. In addition to assembling vast field and data operations, Bloomberg is outspending other Democrats in the race, as well as President Trump, on Google and Facebook and on broadcast and cable television.
Tom Steyer, another billionaire tapping his fortune in a bid for the Democratic nomination, has had less success than Bloomberg, according to Morning Consult. The Californian was supported by 3% of primary voters, putting him into a tie with Amy Klobuchar and 1 point behind Andrew Yang.
The online poll of registered voters was conducted Jan. 15-19 and had an error margin of plus or minus 1 percentage point.
