Bloomberg Rises

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg rose to fourth place among the Democratic hopefuls, according to a new poll conducted by Monmouth University, released January 22. Bloomberg polled at 9 percent nationally, up 4 percent from last month. It’s a big jump for the New York billionaire, who has dumped millions of his fortune into buying advertisements for the 2020 presidential election. He hasn’t participated in any of the Democratic debates.

Bloomberg formally announced his bid for president at the end of November “to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America.”

“I believe my unique set of experiences in business, government, and philanthropy will enable me to win and lead,” he said in his announcement.

On his campaign site, Bloomberg emphasized how important it was to him for Democrats to beat Trump in the 2020 election. "We cannot afford four more years of President Trump's reckless and unethical actions. He represents an existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage," he said.

President Donald Trump, who has nicknames for most of the Democratic nominees, labeled Bloomberg “mini Mike” and slammed the former New York City mayor for spending more than $100 million on ads.

“Mini Mike Bloomberg doesn’t get on the Democrat Debate Stage because he doesn’t want to - he is a terrible debater and speaker. If he did, he would go down in the polls even more (if that is possible!),” Trump tweeted on January 17. “Mini Mike Bloomberg ads are purposely wrong - A vanity project for him to get into the game. Nobody in many years has done for the USA what I have done for the USA, including the greatest economy in history, rebuilding our military, biggest ever tax & regulation cuts, & 2nd A!”