Bloomberg Burned Through $500 Million to Implode on Super Tuesday
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has been running an extremely risky strategy for his presidential campaign. The former New York City mayor effectively skipped the first four races and instead bet big on Super Tuesday, when 14 states and almost 1,400 delegates are up for grabs. So far, Bloomberg, who is worth about $60 billion, has spent more than $500 million on his campaign, including outreach, television ads, and social media memes. A strong performance on Tuesday would show that he's a viable candidate, despite a late entry and a long history of racist statements (like claiming black and Latino men "don’t know how to behave in the workplace") and policies, including stop and frisk, as well as getting eviscerated by Elizabeth Warren in two presidential debates.
As results starting rolling in on Tuesday night, Bloomberg spoke to supporters, declaring, "In just 3 months we've gone from 1 percent of the polls to being a contender." That's debatable. As of publication, Bloomberg has won a total of 23 delegates, more than Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren (19) but less than former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg (26) who dropped out of the race on Sunday. He made the minimum cut off to receive any delegates in only a handful of states, but a sizable chunk of his haul, five delegates, came from American Samoa, which is so far the only contest that he's won. Bloomberg secured 49 percent of the vote in the U.S. territory's caucus, or around 175 votes according to NBC News. Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard took second place and one delegate with 29 percent, or about 103 votes. Bloomberg reportedly had seven full-time staffers working on his campaign in there. Biden, meanwhile, is winning in states where he had no campaign staff.
Bloomberg's spending on the 2020 primary was lavish and completely unprecedented. He spent $11 million on a 60-second long Super Bowl ad. He threw catered events in states with early voting, like one in North Carolina that offered voters free quiches, fruit, cookies, and smoked salmon with capers. His campaign has been paying "volunteers" $2,500 each to spam their friends and family with pro-Bloomberg texts—though some of them immediately followed up telling their loved ones to ignore them and vote for other candidates. His campaign spent anywhere from $1.25 to $3 million on a coronavirus public service announcement on CBS designed to look like Bloomberg was making a presidential address. And he spent an estimated $350 million on TV ads, much to the delight of network executives across the country. All indicators point to Bloomberg having very little to show for his half a billion spend on an unorthodox, expensive presidential run.
Meanwhile, the once expansive Democratic primary field has narrowed to two viable candidates: former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders are currently leading in the delegate count, with 313 and 209 respectively, according to NPR, though those numbers will change as the night goes on. According to NBC News, Bloomberg will reportedly be reassessing his campaign on Wednesday. At one campaign event over the weekend in Tennessee, he said, "You've all heard the slogans, 'Mike will do it,' 'Mike will get it done.' And if you haven't, I've wasted an awful lot of money."
The surging Democratic presidential candidate and Bloomberg LP have fielded nearly 40 sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits over decades.
Originally Appeared on GQ
