Ouch. Imagine spending more than $1 billion to run for president only to drop out after 104 days only to end up with 55 pledged delegates.
Such is the case for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose final campaign finance disclosure forms were just filed, revealing, perhaps, the most epic presidential campaign failure in U.S. history. Bloomberg announced on November 24, 2019 that he was running for president to unseat President Donald Trump. He suspended his campaign less than four months later, on March 4.
Politico reported that that Bloomberg’s final campaign finance report, filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, showed the candidate managed to spend $176 million in the month of March even though he dropped out on the fourth. For comparison, Politico reported that presumptive nominee Joe Biden has “spent just under $76 million on his campaign” through the end of April. The former vice president, according to OpenSecrets.org, has spent just over $100 million on his total campaign.
Biden got off to a slow start in the 2020 Democratic primaries, but he is now well on his way to securing the nomination, while Bloomberg received just 55 total pledged delegates, according to Real Clear Politics.
In total, Bloomberg spent $1,221,777,405.26 on his 104-day campaign for 55 pledged delegates. To put that into perspective, that means Bloomberg spent $11,747,859.66 per day during his campaign and a whopping $22,214,134.64 per delegate.
More from Politico:
Bloomberg’s campaign paid out $23.3 million in salary, fringe benefits and payroll taxes and fees in March alone, according to the campaign finance filing. However, the billionaire also left many former staffers furious by cutting them loose last month. Bloomberg’s campaign enticed Democratic operatives across the country with promises of a paying job through the November election, regardless of whether he ultimately won the nomination or not.
But Bloomberg reneged on that promise, scrapping plans to form his own super PAC and eventually transferring $18 million to the Democratic National Committee instead to bolster the party committee’s field program. Staffers who wanted to work at the DNC had to reapply for jobs, with some staffers getting paid through the first week in April and getting full benefits through the end of the month, according to a release at the time.
As The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti previously reported, former Bloomberg campaign staffers filed a lawsuit against the former mayor for reneging on that promise. The staffers claim Bloomberg defrauded them by promising them jobs through November and then firing them after he suspended his campaign.
“While we considered creating our own independent entity to support the nominee and hold the President accountable, this race is too important to have many competing groups with good intentions but that are not coordinated and united in strategy and execution,” the campaign said in a statement at the time. “The dynamics of the race have also fundamentally changed, and it is critically important that we all do everything we can to support our eventual nominee and scale the Democratic Party’s general election efforts.”
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