On Sunday former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg announced he would spend $100 million in Florida in the next few weeks to support Democratic presidential candidate and former United States Vice President Joe Biden.
Supporting Biden
According to The New York Times, Bloomberg's announcement comes after results of polls revealed an exceedingly close race between Biden and United States President Donald Trump in Florida, which experts believe is a crucial battleground state with 29 electoral votes.
The former mayor's statement also followed criticism from within the Democratic Party after his massive $18 million assistance to the Democratic National Committee. The comments were a result of Bloomberg not providing his promised full support in the effort to win over Trump's campaign.
Bloomberg's Florida commitment is a significant falling back of the promises that some of the former mayor's advisers announced during the primary season.
Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg's campaign manager, had previously told Democrats in private that if the former mayor were not the nominee, he would create a new super Political Action Committee (PAC) and conduct massive efforts fighting against Trump in the biggest swing states of the United States.
After the end of his candidacy, Bloomberg trashed his plans of making an anti-Trump group. Democratic groups took advantage of the opportunity to approach the former mayor's aides where they were told that Bloomberg had not decided to release any funds for the presidential race.
Bloomberg's allies and advisers stated that he has been monitoring the situation and waited patiently before providing financial support at the most effective time. September 24 marks the start of voting in Florida when the absentee ballots will be distributed.
Continuous spending
The move by the former NYC mayor also comes after he had already spent more than $1 billion in his attempts to become the Democratic presidential candidate instead of Biden, as reported by BBC.
President Trump has suggested that he will be using his own funds to support his campaign in Florida before the early voting on September 24.
Bot Trump and Biden are focusing on attracting voters in the state who could potentially cast their votes early by post, which could be a decisive point for the general elections.
Analysts expect postal voting in the United States to be double that of the numbers seen in the 2016 elections. The massive spike is due to the coronavirus pandemic and its social health risks that make people avoid going out.
Out of the 270 electoral college votes required to win the elections, Florida consists of 29, which is the third-largest in the country following California with 55 and Texas with 38. However, the other two states are seen as safe territory by the Democrats and Republicans, respectively.
According to NPR, Trump tweeted that he thought Bloomberg was done with politics after spending almost $2 billion and after giving what the Republican considered the most inept debate performance in the history of presidential races.
Florida has always been considered a neutral state that either side could take over. Surveys show Biden led with white and senior voters over Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, the Democrat has been less than popular with non-Cuban Hispanics. A spokesperson for Bloomberg said better communication with Hispanic voters would pull the scale towards a Biden victory.
