Bloomberg Spent More Than $1 Billion On Failed Campaign For President

In just over three months, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on a bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Bloomberg’s massive spending blitz burned through hundreds of millions in advertising, including a $10 million spot during the Super Bowl.

Bloomberg’s campaign spending was unprecedented, far exceeding the expenditure of any presidential campaign in the past. Even though his campaign was short-lived, Bloomberg still managed to outspend every other Democratic candidate in the race combined. The former mayor suspended his campaign just four days into March, but had already spent $138 million that month alone.

The figures come from Federal Election Commission documents that were recently made public.

Bloomberg may have been a relatively late entrant in the race, but he managed to rise swiftly in the polls, at one point coming in at third place nationally. That momentum didn’t last though.

Despite his aggressive spending, ultimately Bloomberg had little to show for it, earning just 55 pledged delegates, costing over $18 million a piece.

Not long after bowing out of the contest, Bloomberg announced to great surprise that he would be laying off a majority of his campaign staff and would transfer $18 million of unused campaign funds to the Democratic National Committee.

Since then, several lawsuits have either been filed or have been drawn up against Bloomberg from fired campaign staffers who said they were misled about the status of their employment.

Many of them claimed that they were promised employment through November during the hiring process, with the intent to focus on defeating President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, regardless of whether or not Bloomberg remained in the race.

A representative for Bloomberg, however, has said that staffers were never promised full employment through the fall, instead having said that retention would be dependent on workers’ locations, giving preference to those living in battleground states. Former staffers are also being referred for positions with the DNC.

A number of staffers believed they were short changed though. Speaking with NPR earlier this month, some individuals said they only learned that Bloomberg had ended his campaign through the media.

Since exiting the race, Bloomberg announced his endorsement for former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now the presumed Democratic Party nominee for president.