Bloomberg over the weekend launched a plan to spend $100 million to support Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, in the battleground state of Florida.
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg (left) and former Vice President Joe Biden in Las Vegas in February.
Billionaire donors have long played a central role in supporting both political parties.
`Mike Bloomberg is a very influential person,` said former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, who served as Bloomberg’s campaign co-chair.
Bloomberg advisers say the investment in Florida will bring many benefits to Democrats: It will free Biden up in the state to focus on other important battleground states and make Republicans have to
Under Florida election rules, officials can begin counting absentee ballots weeks before election day, meaning they can report results on election night.
`The fact that Florida announced results in favor of Biden on election night is very important for American democracy,` said Kevin Sheekey, a longtime advisor to billionaire Bloomberg.
However, Bloomberg is not born to support the Democratic Party.
He won praise from some Democratic officials for helping the party in the midterm elections and advocating for gun control.
After spending a billion dollars campaigning before the Democratic primary, Bloomberg only won in one place: American Samoa, a territory in the South Pacific.
He continued to be criticized after leaving the race for firing the campaign staff he had promised to hire until the end of November. After Bloomberg transferred the remaining $18 million in campaign funds to the Party National Committee
Bloomberg’s investment in Florida has quieted those criticisms, but some still complain that he waited until the final months of the race to make his move.
`He has a very big ego. It took him a while to get over the sadness of his failed election campaign,` said John Morgan, a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party.
Bloomberg’s aides argue that the billionaire has been devoted to the Democratic Party since the beginning of the campaign.
Not including spending in Florida, Bloomberg is already one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party.
Every Town Supports Gun Safety, a group founded and funded by Bloomberg, pledged $60 million for this year’s election.
Bloomberg also invested an additional $35 million in Hawkfish, the voter data analysis company he founded to help the Democratic Party counterbalance Trump’s campaign.
Although the billionaire has not committed to spending money to help Democrats gain control of the Senate, Nutter said that it is necessary to continue to monitor the situation as Bloomberg’s team is reviewing the data.
Bloomberg advisers said they are still working out the details of how to spend the money in Florida.
Some of the spending would be aimed at helping Biden offset what some Democrats called an `unexpected deficit` in Florida.
Manny Diaz, a former Miami mayor who is advising Bloomberg’s new effort in Florida, said that while Democratic national officials avoid door-knocking on Covid-19 campaigners, Bloomberg will pump
`People like excitement,` he said.
Phuong Vu (According to AP)
