Michael Bloomberg wants to launch his own independent campaign for president. Yahoo reports that the former mayor of New York, who is also a billionare, is seriously thinking about entering the race. He’s targeting an early March deadline.
Report — Bloomberg considering a White House run as an independent: https://t.co/Dc8IaayeS9 pic.twitter.com/oiLYxipwTy
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) January 23, 2016
Reportedly, Michael will be willing to spend at least $1 billion of his own money to fund his campaign, much like Donald Trump has been doing for the entirety of his run. The reasoning behind Michael Bloomberg’s sudden desire to become president is a little unclear. Some say his desire to run manifested from the somewhat-likely situation of Bernie Sanders winning the democratic nomination.
“Mike Bloomberg for president rests on the not-impossible but somewhat unlikely circumstance of either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz versus Bernie Sanders,” said Mr. Rendell, a friend of Mr. Bloomberg’s. “If Hillary wins the nomination, Hillary is mainstream enough that Mike would have no chance, and Mike’s not going to go on a suicide mission.”
Hide your sodas. Hide your guns. Nanny Bloomberg’s going to run. https://t.co/LBEE5H6l1f
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 23, 2016
The New York Times reports that Bloomberg is now 73, and has already taken concrete steps toward a possible campaign. It’s already been a whirlwind election season with Ben Carson and Donald Trump in the running, but now that Michael Bloomberg has expressed interest in pursuing the office of the president, it might make for an even more eventful year ahead.
An adviser said Mr. Bloomberg believes voters want “a nonideological, bipartisan, results-oriented vision.”
“This isn’t about Hillary Clinton,” the adviser continued. “The fact is Hillary Clinton is behind in Iowa and New Hampshire. That should scare a lot of people — and it does.”
Michael Bloomberg’s campaign will supposedly focus more on television advertisements than anything else with a series of detailed policy speeches thrown in.
Bloomberg reportedly commissioned a poll in December to gauge how he might stack up against Donald Trump and Hillary, and he plans to conduct another round of polling after the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9 to further test the waters.
Mr. Bloomberg could enter the race by March and appear as an independent candidate on the ballot in all 50 states. https://t.co/1BlC0ctsiD
— David Burn (@davidburn) January 23, 2016
All this talk of running for office is well and good, but no Independent has ever won the Presidential election, and Michael Bloomberg’s stances on abortion and gun control could spell doom for his campaign from the start.
In October 2015, Bloomberg said he was “flattered” that people would want him to run for president, but it wasn’t something he was considering at the time. That’s apparently changed.
As much fun as it is to feel the Bern, @MikeBloomberg might have the best shot at bridging the gap b/w the parties. https://t.co/2uEaxRysgY
— Jared Ranere (@jaredran) January 23, 2016
While Michael Bloomberg considers entering the race as an Independent, GOP front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are fighting for the GOP bid. Apparently, if either one of them wins, it is one of the two ingredients that Bloomberg thinks might yield a successful campaign. The other ingredient is for Bernie Sanders to beat out Hillary for the democratic nomination.
However, if Hillary does win, Bloomberg’s chances aren’t that high.
When Bloomberg first ran for mayor of New York in 2001, he was registered as a Republican while being on the other side of the fence on issues like gun control and immigration reform, which many conservatives didn’t like. If anything, Michael Bloomberg seems like a candidate who may be able to unite the two parties instead of splitting them up.
[Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images]