Mr. Bloomberg is
expected to file paperwork this week in at least one state with an early
deadline, although an adviser said the former New York mayor had not
made a final decision to run.
Michael R. Bloomberg is actively preparing to
enter the Democratic presidential primary and is expected to file
paperwork this week designating himself as a candidate in at least one
state with an early filing deadline, people briefed on Mr. Bloomberg’s
plans said.
Mr. Bloomberg, the former
New York City mayor and billionaire businessman, has been privately
weighing a bid for the White House for weeks and has not yet made a
final decision on whether to run, an adviser said. But in the first sign
that he is seriously moving toward a campaign, Mr. Bloomberg has
dispatched staffers to Alabama to gather signatures to qualify for the
primary there. Though Alabama does not hold an early primary, it has a
Friday deadline for candidates to formally enter the race.
Mr.
Bloomberg and his advisers called a number of prominent Democrats on
Thursday to tell them he was seriously considering the race, including
former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the retired majority leader who
remains a dominant power broker in the early caucus state. Aides to Mr.
Bloomberg also reached out to Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, the
chair of the Democratic Governors Association.
Mr.
Reid said in a brief interview that Mr. Bloomberg had not explicitly
said he was running for president but that the implication of the call
had been clear.
“It wasn’t just to wish me a good weekend,” Mr. Reid said.
Mr. Bloomberg has prepared to enter presidential races before, in 2016
and then earlier this year, only to pull back in the end. Yet in those
flirtations with the presidency, Mr. Bloomberg has never taken the step
of filing to put his name on a state ballot.
Should
Mr. Bloomberg proceed with a campaign, it could cause a seismic
disruption in the Democratic race. With his immense personal wealth,
centrist views and close ties to the political establishment, he would
present an instantaneous threat to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has been struggling to raise money and is already defending his ideologically moderate base on multiple fronts.
Mr.
Bloomberg, 77, initially bowed out of the 2020 race because of Mr.
Biden’s apparent strength, but he has since grown skeptical that Mr.
Biden is on track to win the Democratic nomination and he does not see
the two leading liberals in the race, Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as strong candidates for the general election.
But
Mr. Bloomberg would face a difficult path in a Democratic primary
largely defined so far by debates about economic inequality. His
presence in the race would offer fodder to the party’s rising populist
wing, led by Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders, who contend that the extremely
rich already wield far too much influence in politics. He is a former
Republican who registered as a Democrat ahead of the midterm elections
last year. And his mayoral record, including his support for
stop-and-frisk policing and his championing of charter schools, has the
potential to alienate pillars of the Democratic Party’s political base.
Ms.
Warren, who has sparred from afar with Mr. Bloomberg over her proposals
to tax the extremely rich, issued a blistering fund-raising message
calling his potential candidacy “another example of the wealthy wanting
our government and economy to only work for themselves.” Campaigning in
North Carolina on Thursday evening, Ms. Warren offered a restrained
comment on Mr. Bloomberg and cast her candidacy as a “grass roots
movement.”
“It’s not enough just to have somebody come in, anybody, and say they’re going to buy this election,” she said.
Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, signaled the stiff resistance Mr. Bloomberg would face if he joined the race.
“More billionaires seeking more political power surely isn’t the change America needs,” Mr. Shakir said in an email.
Howard
Wolfson, a close adviser to Mr. Bloomberg, said on Thursday that the
former mayor has grown uneasy about the existing trajectory of the
Democratic primary. He said Mr. Bloomberg viewed President Trump as an
“unprecedented threat to our nation,” and noted the Democrat’s heavy
spending in the 2018 midterm elections and this week’s off-year races in
Virginia.
“We now need to finish the
job and ensure that Trump is defeated — but Mike is increasingly
concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned to
do that,” Mr. Wolfson said. “If Mike runs he would offer a new choice
to Democrats built on a unique record running America’s biggest city,
building a business from scratch and taking on some of America’s
toughest challenges as a high-impact philanthropist.”
Advisers to Mr. Bloomberg said he would likely make up his mind about the race within days, rather than weeks.
He
will have to move quickly if he is to compete in a serious way for the
Democratic nomination. Beyond Alabama, several other states have filing
deadlines in quick succession, including Arkansas and New Hampshire,
with its crucial early primary, next week.
Bloomberg
petitioners were on the campus of the University of Alabama on
Thursday, a Democratic strategist said, and officials with the Arkansas
Democratic Party said they had been contacted by a Washington, D.C., law
firm on Thursday to seek detailed information about the state’s filing
procedures. The firm had not named Mr. Bloomberg as its client, stirring
speculation in the state party that the surprise candidate might be
Hillary Clinton.
Michael John Gray,
the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, said Mr. Bloomberg’s
financial might would make him an important wild card in the race.
“It shakes things up, obviously,” Mr. Gray said of a potential Bloomberg campaign.
A Fox News poll found
in late October that Mr. Bloomberg would face more opposition than
enthusiasm at the outset of a primary campaign: Presented with Mr.
Bloomberg as a hypothetical entrant into the primary, 6 percent of
Democratic primary voters said they would definitely support him, while
32 percent said they would never vote for him.
While
some of Mr. Bloomberg’s longtime advisers have committed to a campaign,
including the pollster Doug Schoen and the ad-maker Bill Knapp, he
would have to build a campaign from zero in the early primary and caucus
states, and he may have a hard time qualifying for either of the two
remaining debates this year.
In a
Democratic race, Mr. Bloomberg would face a battery of complicated
questions about his political ideology and governing record. He has been
a vigorous advocate for core liberal causes, like gun control and
battling climate change. But as mayor Mr. Bloomberg also championed
police searches that targeted black and Latino men, and in an interview last fall, he defended his administration’s stop-and-frisk policing strategy.
In
the same interview, Mr. Bloomberg also expressed skepticism about the
#MeToo movement in general, as well as the specific allegations of
sexual misconduct against Charlie Rose, the disgraced anchor who for
many years broadcast his show from the offices of Mr. Bloomberg’s media
company.
Mayor Steve Benjamin of
Columbia, S.C., said in an interview that he spoke with Mr. Bloomberg in
late October, and the two discussed the unfolding presidential race.
Mr. Benjamin, a Democrat who has not taken sides in the primary,
predicted Mr. Bloomberg’s background as a businessman and mayor, and his
stances on climate and guns, would make him a formidable contender if
he runs.
“There’s a lot of work to be
done in gearing up for the first four primaries and caucuses, and
certainly for Super Tuesday, but I would caution anybody not to
underestimate Mike Bloomberg,” Mr. Benjamin said.
Ms.
Raimondo, the Rhode Island governor, stopped short of backing Mr.
Bloomberg as a presidential candidate but issued a glowing statement
about his record.
“While this is not
an endorsement, Michael Bloomberg is a friend and I admire his track
record as a successful business leader and mayor who finds practical
solutions to some of America’s biggest challenges, from creating good
jobs to addressing the opioid crisis and fighting for common-sense gun
safety,” Ms. Raimondo said.
But
several likely Iowa caucusgoers, in interviews on Thursday night at an
event for another candidate, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota,
expressed a lack of enthusiasm for a potential Bloomberg candidacy.
“This
is a rigorous thing, to run for political office,” said Janny Miller,
65, of Des Moines. “For somebody to step in late — while he probably has
a lot to offer — maybe it’s not the right thing to do.”
Even
if Mr. Bloomberg enters the race almost immediately, it would likely be
impossible for him to qualify for the next debate on Nov. 20. The
deadline is just six days away, and he would need 165,000 unique donors
and four polls showing him at 3 percent or higher (or two early-state
polls at 5 percent). There may not even be four qualifying polls
released in the next six days, and those that will be released may
already be underway without Mr. Bloomberg’s name.
For the December debate, he would need
200,000 unique donors and four polls showing him at 4 percent or
higher, or two early-state polls at 6 percent. The deadline for meeting
that threshold is Dec. 12.
Though Mr.
Bloomberg could still opt against running, even his preliminary steps
toward a campaign may come as a blow to Mr. Biden, who has been counting
on strong support from centrist Democrats, traditional party donors and
much of the business community to carry him forward in the race.
When Mr. Bloomberg previously announced in March
that he would not run for president, advisers indicated the decision
was shaped in part by Mr. Biden’s strong popularity with Democratic
primary voters. But Mr. Biden’s position in the race is evidently no
longer imposing enough to keep Mr. Bloomberg at bay.
As
of late afternoon on Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg had not spoken with Mr.
Biden about his updated plans, an adviser to Mr. Bloomberg said.
Aides to Mr. Biden declined to comment.
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