The biggest loser in all of 2020 won’t be whichever presidential candidate fails to win the Electoral College. No, the biggest loser in 2020 has already been determined to be former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In the weeks leading up to the election, Bloomberg announced that he would be spending $100 million to ensure Florida voted for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. As The Daily Wire previously reported, Bloomberg said in mid-September that the buy was due to tightening polls in the Sunshine State.
Bloomberg’s money was spent on digital and TV ads and “communicating with Hispanic voters will be a key part” of the strategy, according to a press release from Bloomberg’s Independence USA political committee issued to The Washington Post at the time.
“The infusion of cash comes as polls indicate a tightening of the race between Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who are deadlocked in a recent Marist Poll, and as Floridians start voting by mail at the end of the month,” Politico reported at the time. “Biden’s support among Hispanic voters is in double digits yet remains relatively low for a Democrat who wants to carry the state according to surveys of Latinos in Florida and Miami.”
Florida was called for President Donald Trump on election night. With 96% of the votes counted, Trump won the state by 3.4 points. The RealClearPolitics polling average heading into the election had Biden up by 0.9 points, with just three out of four late-election polls showing Trump with a lead. Quinnipiac University’s poll, conducted in the days just before the election, showed Biden up five points.
Just a week before the election, Bloomberg made a last-minute ad by in Texas and Ohio on behalf of Biden, citing internal polls showing those states were within reach as well. The Daily Wire reported at the time that Bloomberg was sinking another $15 million into the two states to purchase ads supporting Biden, including Spanish-language ads in Texas.
“Howard Wolfson, one of Mr. Bloomberg’s closest aides, said the former mayor had recently asked his team to run a round of polls to see whether Mr. Trump had unexpected vulnerabilities that could be exploited in the campaign’s closing weeks. Up to this point, Mr. Bloomberg’s general-election activities have focused on Florida, where he has pledged to spend $100 million supporting Mr. Biden,” The New York Times reported at the time. “The Bloomberg team conducted polling in a number of states over the weekend and came away convinced that Texas and Ohio represented its best targets — narrowly divided electoral prizes where the war for television airtime is not already cluttered with heavy advertising on either side. The team presented Mr. Bloomberg with the numbers on Monday morning and he gave the go-ahead.”
Trump won Ohio by eight points and Texas by six.
We also can’t forget that Bloomberg spent nearly $1 billion on his own failed 100-day presidential campaign earlier this year. CNBC suggested these failures may “impact his involvement in the upcoming New York mayoral race.”