'EAT THE RICH', read the sign taped to the window of a Bloomberg campaign office in Flint, MI. This kind of protest could be aimed at any number of presidential candidates, but Michael Bloomberg is by far the richest of the 2020 hopefuls while also spending the most on his campaign - by a long shot.
Whatever the approach of course, running for president is a notoriously costly undertaking in the United States. Anyone looking to make it across the finish line is going to need some serious financial clout to accompany their policies, principles and personality. The only difference between the candidates each election cycle in this regard is where they source the funding from. As an analysis of Federal Election Commission figures by Forbes has revealed, some are relying heavily on donations from 'the rich' for 2020 while others are focusing more on so-called grassroots support.
With a net worth of over $60 billion, Bloomberg in reality only needs one rich backer - himself. Steyer is also worth over a billion dollars and joins another ten billionaires bankrolling his foray into top tier politics. Ahead of everyone in terms of relying on the largest number of billionaire donors though is Joe Biden - 60 billionaires or their spouses contributed financially to his campaign in 2019.
In sharp contrast is Bernie Sanders who has accepted donations from no billionaires at all. He has however raised over $130 million so far - 56 percent of which came from individual contributions of less than $200 according to OpenSecrets.org analysis. Looking at the top three of this infographic by means of comparison, Biden has raised 36 percent via small donations, Buttigieg 43 percent and Klobuchar 38 percent. For Bloomberg of course, this figure is 0.0 percent.
