NEW LONDON, New Hampshire — The prospect of Michael Bloomberg jumping into the 2020 Democratic fray is alarming supporters of Joe Biden, who see the former vice president’s decades-long Oval Office quest getting upended by the billionaire businessman’s open wallet.
“I pray to God, every night, that this won’t hurt Biden,” said Peggy Bell, 85, at a Saturday campaign event for the 36-year Delaware senator. “I don’t think he’s weak, it depends on where the polls are from. I’ve followed him for years. Look at what he did with Barack [Obama]. Bloomberg has nothing in comparison to that.”
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Bloomberg’s looming presidential candidacy is effectively a vote of no confidence in Biden’s chances, amid slipping poll numbers and slack fundraising. Bloomberg, New York City mayor for 12 years starting in 2002, would reportedly spend “whatever it takes” to win the Democratic nomination and fall 2020 fight against President Trump. With an estimated net worth of $53 billion, Bloomberg expects that he can ignore the first four primary states and instead flood airwaves with advertisements in hopes of scoring a series of wins on Super Tuesday, March 3, when more than a dozen states and entities vote.
Recent polling shows Biden’s support among Democratic voters precipitously falling in early nominating contests such as Iowa and New Hampshire. His campaign has all but conceded it may not see a win until South Carolina, the fourth state to vote in the Democratic primary season. That strategy has been criticized as untenable by a number of Democratic strategists, particularly as his campaign runs short on cash.
At the end of the last quarter, Biden’s campaign had just under $9 million in the bank with a burn rate that many Democrats found unsustainable. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the two other Democratic front-runners, ended the quarter with $33.7 million and $25.7 million, respectively.
Bloomberg, 77, has not declared his candidacy, but filing to run in Alabama’s primary on Super Tuesday is a strong indication he’s leaning toward doing so. New Hampshire’s own filing deadline is Friday.
Biden, 76, on Friday, greeted news of Bloomberg’s likely entry politely, telling reporters, “I welcome him in the race. Michael’s a solid guy. So, let’s see where this goes.”
Supporters of Biden, making his third presidential run after flops in the 1988 cycle and 2008 race, weren’t as magnanimous about Bloomberg’s White House ambitions.
Bloomberg has “already said he’s not going to be campaigning in New Hampshire, so we’re deeply insulted,” Steve Root, 70, a securities lawyer, told the Washington Examiner. “This whole thing seems like Ross Perot to me, but I guess a lot of people think Joe can’t get over the finish line.”
Eric Boyer, 40, a self-described moderate Democrat and a political science professor at Colby-Sawyer College, was skeptical of Bloomberg’s chances.
“I don’t see a path to the nomination,” Boyer told the Washington Examiner. “It just doesn’t seem like the moderate lane needs another candidate.”
Some Democrats, despite being ardent Biden supporters, sounded more like backers of Sanders, a socialist, or Warren, 70, running as a left-wing populist, in blasting a potential Bloomberg run.
“We don’t need any more billionaires,” Steven Foster, 60, a musician who has committed himself to Biden, told the Washington Examiner. “He thinks he’s going to outshine Biden? Biden has way more experience. You need someone who is going to be strong. We already have a billionaire in the White House and look what’s going on now.”
That view echoes comments by Sanders, 78 on Sunday, who labeled Bloomberg’s presidential aspirations “the arrogance of billionaires” and accused the entrepreneur-turned-mayor of trying to buy the election.
But the fretting over Bloomberg’s chances may be premature.
A MorningConsult poll released Sunday morning found only 4% of Democratic voters nationwide support his candidacy, while nearly 25% of likely primary voters view him unfavorably. That’s unfavorable rate is higher than any other Democrat running.
