This would be former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s last opportunity to run for president if he chooses to do so. He regretted not running in 2016, and he just put his name on the Alabama state ticket. That does not mean he is running in 2020, or does it?
A new Morning Consult poll showed him trailing many of the Democrats in the Democratic primary. It appeared that he would pull into fifth place. Bloomberg has been a Republican, an independent, and now a Democrat. That should make him palatable to all three groups — or none of them.
He said that he was interested, because he did not think that anyone on the current ticket could win against Donald Trump. The poll showed that Bloomberg does equally well against “Warren, Sanders, and Biden in a hypothetical matchup against Trump:”
‘25% of Democratic primary voters express unfavorable views of the billionaire, higher than any of the 15 candidates currently in the race.’
According to the poll taken on November 8, Bloomberg would take about four percent of the vote in a hypothetical election. The former Republican billionaire would come in above 10 of the current candidates.
Pundits claimed that he would come in to compete with the most middle-ground candidates, but not especially effectively.
Former vice president Joe Biden retained his 31 percent ranking in the hypothetical race, and so did Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with 20 percent and Elizabeth Warren (D-MS) with 18 percent.
Bloomberg earlier said that he definitely would not run in 2020. However, he took the initial step in Alabama. The state has an extremely early date to indicate the candidates’ intentions. He would be qualified for “Super Tuesday” in the state if he definitely decided to run.
Bloomberg adviser Howard Wolfson tweeted:
‘[T]he former New York City mayor “is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned” to beat Trump.’
According to the poll, 43 percent of voters across the country would vote for Bloomberg in this hypothetical race. That would give him a six-point advantage over the president, which was what Warren’s numbers said.
Still, 21 percent of these voters were undecided. That has been a substantial number and larger than in the other presidential matchups.
A number of the candidates do not have national name recognition. Bloomberg does come into the primary with wider recognition from his time as New York mayor than 11 of the other candidates. That included another billionaire Tom Steyer (CA).
Nearly one-fourth of the voters in the poll “expressed unfavorable views of Bloomberg, higher than any other candidate. He does worst among the youngest voters and independents. The oldest category of Democratic primary voters and most likely to vote (65 and older) and those Democrats who considered themselves conservative, a small slice of the electorate, liked Bloomberg.
The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. In the head-to-head matchups, there was a 3-point margin of error. The poll was taken among 2,225 nationally registered voters. The people were randomly selected and indicated they “may vote in their state’s Democratic primary or caucus.”
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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