Michael Bloomberg did not need a long time to digest his defeat. After investing hundreds of millions of dollars in pure loss in the face of the dynamics created by the massive victory of Joe Biden in South Carolina, on February 29 – this was amply confirmed in the fourteen states of Super Tuesday, Tuesday, March 3 – One of the world’s twelve largest fortunes (according to Forbes ) ended his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday morning.
Michael Bloomberg at once supported yesterday’s winner, former Vice President Biden. “Three months ago, I ran for president to beat Donald Trump. Today, I withdraw from the race for the same reason: to beat Donald Trump. Because it became clear to me that continuing would have made it more difficult to achieve it, ” he said in a statement.
On November 20, 2019, he had indeed placed this aim at the top of his motivations, with the ambition to “rebuild America.” “I am someone who does things and solves problems, not someone who just talks, someone who is ready to face difficult fights, and to win,” he added. The results of Tuesday evening, often bitter considering the sums invested, showed the limits of this ambition.
Spectacular comeback
In four days, the Democratic camp managed to do what the Grand Old Party was unable to do in 2015 and 2016 in the face of Donald Trump’s unfriendly takeover.
As early as September 2015, candidates such as Scott Walker, then governor of Wisconsin, and Rick Perry, former governor of Texas, had given up by warning the other contenders for the Republican nomination against the danger posed by too many contenders. These warnings had met with no response, and Donald Trump, undoubtedly underestimated, had been able to settle in the heart of the primaries with a relatively modest share of the voting intentions, then of the votes.
At the time, on Super Tuesday evening (in early March 2016), three conservative candidates were still competing to take the head of an anti-Trump camp. Senator Marco Rubio had waited for a stinging defeat in his state of Florida before giving up a fortnight later. The governor of Ohio, John Kasich, and the Senator of Texas, Ted Cruz, were then maintained until the beginning of May, limiting the chances of seeing the emergence of an alternative candidacy against a billionaire favored by the electoral system specific to the Republicans, which gives states a significant bonus in terms of delegates to the winner.
Conversely, this year, rallies have accelerated on the Democratic side, fueling the most spectacular “comeback” in electoral history. Launched in support of Joe Biden on February 26 by a figure in the African American community of South Carolina, Jim Clyburn, number three Democrat in the House of Representatives, this virtuous dynamic allowed the former vice president to overcome difficulties considered almost fatal: finances in agony, an ethical organization.
Furthermore, these rallies have not been and should not be purely formal. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who retired from the race on Monday, March 2, made her campaign teams available to Joe Biden, allowing him to win a state where Bernie Sanders triumphed in 2016, leaving behind over twenty points then favorite, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The striking force of Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg, determined to beat Donald Trump at all costs, will now bring Joe Biden the remarkable effect of his organization and, above all, a strategic digital campaign device, at the time of the power of social networks.
Donald Trump’s re-election campaign manager Brad Parscale has been touting the Republican camp’s lead in this area in recent weeks. The engagement of Michael Bloomberg could allow Joe Biden to make up for part of this delay miraculously.
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Joe Biden’s last rival in the Democratic nomination race, Bernie Sanders, responded to the former vice president’s succession of victories by promising a bitter battle of plans. The Vermont senator went on the offensive again reproaching his vote in favor of the invasion of Iraq in 2002, as well as his support for free trade agreements considered destructive of jobs. He accused him of having defended cuts in social spending “for the past forty years” and of being supported by big business, billionaires, and the “democratic establishment.”
“You can’t defeat Trump with the old recipes,” argued the Vermont senator before adding, “I like Joe. Joe is a good guy, and I do not want this campaign to escalate. The main unknown for Bernie Sanders lies for the moment in the choice of Elizabeth Warren to continue or not her campaign after new disappointing results on March 3. The Senator from Vermont would have a better chance if the latter, also on the left, decided to give up the nomination.
Maine’s results on Wednesday attested to this. In this New England state, the Senator obtained just over 15% of the vote, depriving Bernie Sanders of victory (32.9%), who came just behind Joe Biden (34%). In 2016, Bernie Sanders won more than 64% of the votes against the favorite Hillary Clinton in the same state.
Bernie Sanders
But Bernie Sanders does not just need Elizabeth Warren to step down. Public support of Senator would allow it to counter the wave of rallies that supports since March 1, the dynamics enjoyed by the former vice president.