LOS ANGELES (AP) – Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg will reconsider on Wednesday whether to continue in the race after his disappointing results on the Super Tuesday primary despite spending more than $ 500 million on his campaign.
A person close to the Bloomberg campaign team confirmed their deliberations. The source requested anonymity because she was not authorized to comment on the matter.
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Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman and former New York mayor, has spent sums unprecedented in the history of political campaigns since joining the race in November. He spent millions of dollars on states like Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, where former Vice President Joe Biden easily won Tuesday thanks to the inertia of his decisive victory in South Carolina.
Bloomberg, the world’s ninth-richest man, has a net worth of $ 61 billion.
According to the AP, Bloomberg accumulates 18 delegates: five from the territory of American Samoa; one from Texas, one from North Carolina; four from Tennessee and seven from Colorado.
Kevin Sheekey, campaign manager for Bloomberg, said defeating Donald Trump in November remains “priority one.”
The California primaries, which offer the largest number of delegates to the race and a state where Bloomberg spent at least $ 57 million, were won by Bernie Sanders.
The 14 states in which there were internal elections on Tuesday were the first in which Bloomberg’s name appeared on the ballot, after he decided not to participate in the first four states. This is an unconventional strategy that has never worked, however the scale of Bloomberg’s spending is unprecedented.
âWhen someone is late to the game and has a brand, they shouldn’t assume that they can overcome that aspect only with expense. He still has to answer questions and be scrutinized, âsaid Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton collaborator.
The money allowed Bloomberg to campaign in the Super Tuesday states in ways his opponents could only dream of. He was the only pre-candidate who was airborne in all 14 states, and he had field staff in each, including some teams that campaign management said were higher compared to those made by any other in a previous election.
According to information obtained by The Associated Press about spending on television advertising, Bloomberg had spent until the previous weekend almost $ 180 million in the 14 Super Tuesday states alone.
In states like Virginia and Alabama, Bloomberg’s gigantic advertising spending did not help prevent Biden’s victory. Bloomberg channeled more than $ 12 million into Virginia, where 99 delegates were in dispute, since joining the race. In Alabama, Bloomberg spent more than $ 6 million on television advertising, and of that amount, more than $ 1 million corresponded to the 10 days leading up to the election.
