Financial giant Michael Bloomberg plans to allocate $500 million to either his own 2020 campaign or to the Democrat who wins the primaries.
If Bloomberg decides not to join the presidential race, he will allocate his funds to run a “data-heavy campaign designed to operate as a shadow political party for the eventual Democratic nominee,” according to Politico.
Bloomberg’s political team assembled these two plans since November of last year. They met together regularly at Bloomberg Philanthropies to find ways to stop President Donald Trump from winning the next election.
Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg’s top adviser during his time as New York City mayor, told Politico that $500 million should be enough funds to get through the first few months. If Bloomberg runs and wins the primaries, he’ll spend more on his campaign.
Bloomberg plans to run as a Democrat, and not as an independent like he considered in the past. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that if he were to run as president, he would run as an independent; a decision that garnered him tons of criticism from Democrats.
“Mike spent $100 million in his last New York City election. And you can do the math as you think more broadly but New York City is 3 percent of the national population,” Sheekey said. “I’m not suggesting it’s straight math. But I’m suggesting that when Mike Bloomberg is committed to making a difference and seeing something though, generally speaking he’s pretty unabashed in doing so.”
On Feb. 8, Bloomberg told the Associated Press that he would make a decision in three more weeks whether or not he will run for president.