Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former Mayor of New York City, has decided to completely skip the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire Primary and instead focus his energy on Super Tuesday states, where 15 states cast their vote for the Democratic nominee, and April elections, where four more states make their decision. It really is a bold, unique strategy and one that has never been successful before.
In preparation for these elections, Bloomberg's team has hired more than 200 staffers to work in 21 states, McClatchy DC reported.
The hiring spree is the campaign's way of beefing up its ground game to go hand-in-hand with the $80 million dollar ad buy they recently made.
According to Dan Kanninen, a veteran Democratic campaign official who is advising Bloomberg, this strategy allows the team to talk to a number of voters in various states while other candidates focus on Iowa and New Hampshire.
“We can have a large and concurrent conversation with the American people in 29 or 30 contests all at once while our opponents are stuck talking to a narrow portion of the electorate in the early states,” Kanninen told McClatchy. “It means we’re out of the sandbox. … While we’re late to the contest overall, we’re going to be early to the March states.”
Super Tuesday is set to take place on March 3, 2020 and includes: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Democrats Abroad, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
The Bloomberg campaign deployed staffers to key Super Tuesday states, including Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
They also sent staffers to Michigan, Missouri and Mississippi. Those states vote on March 10. Another election takes place on March 17 in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, where more staffers are being sent and Georgia, which votes March 24.
In preparation for April elections, the campaign has staff in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania.
“So many of the most critical states in the fall are in those March contest states,” Kanninen said. “Donald Trump is not governing — he’s campaigning in all these places and Democrats aren’t. When we get to these places there’s relief that there’s a Democrat there to take on Donald Trump.”
“After the early states, It’s one consecutive contest. Most campaigns drop in a couple weeks before frantically, without establishing authentic relationships,” Kanninen explained. “When you put a team on the ground for three months, talk to community leaders, clergy, business folks, you can advance your cause far more than just dropping in frantically.”
A number of Obama alumni are working on Bloomberg's campaign. Their focus, however, isn't on "hope and change" but beating Republicans. It is something Democratic operative Michael Ceraso said Obama alumni understand.
“The current political environment isn’t looking for hope and change. No, voters are placing a premium on beating the other team above everything else. Former Obama operatives understand this,” Ceraso said."Oh, and it doesn’t hurt they can collect a huge check along the way.”
Because Bloomberg launched his campaign so late in the game, he has had to dump tons of money into the race. And it has not come without scrutiny. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have said Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, another billionaire, have done everything in their power to buy the election.
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