Bloomberg to spend
Possible candidate pouring $15M-$20M into registration
The former New York mayor plans to plow up to $20 million into voter registration drives
WASHINGTON — As he moves toward a presidential announcement, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg is rolling out plans to spend an estimated $15 million to $20 million on a voter registration drive designed to weaken President Donald Trump’s re-election chances in five battleground states.
News of the large investment, confirmed by Bloomberg’s team on Wednesday, comes less than a week after the former New York City mayor unveiled a $100 million online advertising campaign attacking Trump in four general election swing states as well.
The new effort will target 500,000 voters from traditionally underrepresented groups that typically lean Democratic, including African-americans, Latinos, Asians, young voters and those living in some rural communities. The drive will begin early next year in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, but could expand to more states.
The move marks another significant show of financial force demonstrating Bloomberg’s ability to run what senior adviser Howard Wolfson described as parallel campaigns over the coming year.
Bloomberg has already filed paperwork to qualify for presidential primary ballots in three states. The 77-year-old former Republican and independent, who formally registered as a Democrat just last year, is expected to make a formal announcement about his 2020 intentions in the coming days.
“If Mike runs, we’re going to try to do what we can to run two campaigns simultaneously,” Wolfson said.
“One campaign is a primary campaign — and there are a lot of great people in that contest and a lot of focus and activity around that,” he added. “But at the same time, there’s another campaign going on that the president has begun that ends in November that also needs to be engaged. And one of the arguments that we would make on behalf of Mike to primary voters is (that) he is able to wage these two campaigns simultaneously — effectively and simultaneously.”
The new voter registration drive targets voters across five states that Trump won in 2016 largely by narrow margins. The Republican president carried Michigan and Wisconsin by less than 1 point and Arizona and North Carolina by 3 points.
The exception is Texas, where