Snubbing Iowa, Bloomberg charts his own path in 2020 contest
SACRAMENTO >> Iowa? Who cares.
On the day the 2020 presidential election kicks off with the Iowa caucuses, Michael Bloomberg was half a continent and a leap of faith away in California, where the Democratic candidate sought to bring attention to a campaign that has forsworn early voting states and anchored its ambitions to California, Texas and other delegate-rich battlegrounds to come.
The billionaire former New York City mayor took to the air in a chartered jet Monday, with a retinue of reporters and TV cameras in tow, and touch down around the state to remind voters that California’s election, like Iowa’s, is underway.
Early voting in the nation’s most populous state begins Monday for the Mar. 3 primary election. It is Bloomberg’s fourth trip to the state as a candidate.
His first stop was at a coffee shop in Sacramento, the state capital, where in somewhat rambling remarks he encouraged supporters to get out and vote. He later landed in Fresno, in the heart of the farm belt, for an outdoor rally with Latino voters, and afterward was scheduled to head to Compton, the Los Angeles-area city known as the West Coast capital of hiphop, where he planned to launch a national bus tour for surrogates and supporters.
Joe Biden says democracy begins in Iowa, but Bloomberg told supporters the path to the White House runs through California.
“I’m not running against the other Democratic candidates, I’m running against Donald Trump,” Bloomberg said at the low-key appearance in Sacramento, speaking on a stage with a U.S. flag backdrop and “Vote early” posters. “We are going to win this.”
In the crowd was retiree Ruth Holton-Hodson, a Democrat from Sacramento, who is leaning toward Bloomberg as the most likely choice to defeat Trump. But she said she worries his skip-Iowa plan could alienate voters, who would see a wealthy candidate making his own rules.
“I think it will turn people off,” she said.
Nearby, wearing an “I like Mike” sweatshirt, Colorado student Myles Hammond said he was wavering in his decision, but is closely focused on Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders. Hammond, who was in Sacramento for a graduate school interview, said he is drawn to the former mayor’s push for gun control but also likes Sanders strong connection with young voters. However, he worries the Vermont senator’s progressive agenda might drive off middleground voters.
“I don’t know if it would push some independent voters away,” Hammond said of Sanders. He wasn’t sure if Bloomberg’s unusual strategy of skipping Iowa would work but said he might have “a better chance” focusing on a large state like California.