Super Tuesday: Michael Bloomberg is 'biggest loser' as he fails to win a single state despite spending $700M
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg contested the primaries for the 2020 presidential election for the first time on Super Tuesday, March 3, and it was nothing short of a disaster for him. The 77-year-old billionaire candidate, who has been funding his own campaign, failed to win any of the states that went to the polls. In fact, he had to be content with a win in American Samoa, a territory in the Pacific that doesn’t command great electoral significance.
After his poor show in states such as Virginia, one advisor to Bloomberg told CNN that it did not go as per the plans. Bloomberg himself planned to reassess his campaign on Wednesday, March 4, that failed to bring little dividends despite him spending millions.
In Virginia, Bloomberg did not get a single delegate despite spending millions on television advertisements. On Super Tuesday, he came up to the third position in the delegates' count with 30 at the time of writing this report but that was far less than the top two candidates — former vice president Joe Biden (360) and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (280).
Biden, who saw key endorsements in the recent days, including from his former rivals in the Democratic race Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke, bagged at least eight states on the mega poll day.
Bloomberg campaign in an indecisive mode
Bloomberg's campaign seemed to be in a puzzle following the poor results. According to NBC, his camp saw "some of the writing on the wall" and the candidate himself told his supporters that his campaign had made remarkable gains "no matter how many delegates" he won. Speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida, a state which he is now looking forward to, Bloomberg attacked President Donald Trump after bristling at ideas that he quit the race.
"In just three months we've gone from 1 per cent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president," the billionaire candidate, who joined the fray only in November last year, said; still harboring hope about his faltering campaign.
Trump did not waste the opportunity to mock Bloomberg on his poor shows. The president, who himself had a good day by clinching a number of Republican primaries, called Bloomberg the "biggest loser" of the night. "His 'political' consultants took him for a ride. $700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation. Way to go Mike!" he said.