Days before the 2001 election, polls showed Michael Bloomberg trailing a seasoned opponent by double-digits. Dismissed as a billionaire trying to buy his way into office, the first-time candidate’s style was charitably described as “low-key” — and less charitably as detached or “dry as toast”. Yet he prevailed to become New York City’s mayor. “Nobody believed we would do this tonight, but we had faith,” he said as supporters basked in victory.
That formative political experience — and a battery of data and opinion research — have kindled a similar faith among Bloomberg loyalists this week as he joined the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. But at a time when progressive ideas are on the ascendant, some derided the announcement as a misguided vanity project for a 77-year-old media baron who ran in New York as a moderate Republican.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has put taxing billionaires at the centre of her candidacy, welcomed Mr Bloomberg to the race this way: “He doesn’t need people. He only needs bags and bags of money.”