The Sanders campaign said Wednesday night that they will not accept any money from former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg during the general election if Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wins the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
It does not appear, however, that Mike Bloomberg has offered to bankroll a possible Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.
Sanders advisors told media that they would “reject an offer from Mike Bloomberg to spend heavily on his behalf in the general election if Sanders wins the Democratic presidential nomination,” according to NBC News, and that “the Democratic front-runner would not want Bloomberg’s help.”
“It’s a hard no,” a top Sanders aide, Jeff Weaver, said in an interview. “Bernie has said he’s going to fund his presidential campaign with small-dollar contributions, and I think we can do that. I think we can raise over a billion dollars in small-dollar contributions.”
Bloomberg’s campaign responded by saying they’re not interested in cutting any checks at the moment, and certainly won’t be donating any money to a campaign that will reject it outright.
“Bernie said he didn’t want his money, so we’re not going to. I don’t think it would be prudent to spend on behalf of somebody who didn’t want it,” Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson told the outlet, adding that Sanders seems to be jumping the gun a bit on securing the Democratic presidential nomination.
“I think everyone else has said they want the help, including Elizabeth Warren. If Elizabeth Warren is the nominee, we will do everything we can to help her. Sanders is the one candidate who said he didn’t want the help,” Wolfson said.
Bloomberg can certainly afford to bankroll a presidential campaign all on his own, without the help of other candidates or the Democratic National Committee — a boon to the DNC, which remains in debt from the 2016 and 2018 elections seasons. The media mogul-turned-NYC mayor-turned-political activist has already spent $500 million of his nearly $60 billion largesse, and plans to continue spending throughout the primary season, particularly if it remains contentious.
The 2020 presidential candidates are expected to spend more than a billion dollars over the course of the next several months, contending for the White House, and Bloomberg is the only one who could self-fund the entire campaign. Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would likely have to break her promise of forgoing campaign contributions from Wall Street and corporate interests, particularly when the DNC demands joint fundraising operations to help candidates mired in difficult downticket races.
Sanders, of course, can’t be picky when it comes to who is fundraising for him and who is donating to his campaign, even if those people tend to be the “billionaires” he regularly rails against (millionaires, of course, are still welcome, ever since Sanders became one).
“Sanders cannot control or dictate what independent groups do on his behalf since campaign finance law prohibits candidates from coordinating strategy with outside groups,” according to NBC News. “But Bloomberg’s team has said the mogul would not spend on behalf of a candidate who rejected his help.”