How much did Mike Bloomberg spend per delegate? About $18 million
Mike Bloomberg announced Wednesday he was exiting the 2020 Democratic presidential race after launching an unorthodox bid for the White House in November and spending a record amount of cash in that short time. After focusing past the first four primary states, Bloomberg put more than $570 million into advertising across the country according to ad tracking by Kantar/Campaign Media analysis group. At the time of his departure from the race the morning after Super Tuesday, he had amassed just 31 pledged delegates, meaning in total he had spent about $18 million per delegate earned.
At the same time, only about $237 million of that total ad spending has been on ads targeting Super Tuesday state voters who headed to the polls March 3. The vast bulk of it had been spent in states that had not even voted by the time of his exit, including in Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio.
In Florida, Bloomberg spent nearly $48 million on ads. He also doled out more than $17 million in Ohio. Both battleground states hold presidential primaries on March 17. In New York, Bloomberg's home state, he spent more than $26 million. In Pennsylvania, he spent $23 million. Neither state has voted yet — their primaries will be held on April 28, more than a month away.
He didn't spend much in American Samoa, the only contest he won outright, just $904 on digital. In fact, the only state or territory where Bloomberg spent less was Wyoming.
By comparison, Joe Biden, who won the most states on Super Tuesday, spent just over $2 million in total on television, radio and digital advertisements in those 14 states.
In a statement confirming the end of his presidential bid, Bloomberg threw his full support behind Biden who has mounted an astonishing comeback since losing the first three contests of the election cycle, but celebrated a resounding victory in South Carolina less than four days ago in the South Carolina Democratic primary.
"I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," Bloomberg said in a statement. He went on to say that he would work to make him president of the United States.
While this was the first time Bloomberg has mounted his own bid for the White House, it is not the first time he has dropped a massive amount of cash in an effort to help Democrats in the era of Donald Trump.
In December, Bloomberg, who is worth an estimated $58 billion according to Forbes, contributed $10 million to the House Majority PAC working to elect Democrats to the House of Representatives. He also donated more than $300,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 2019 and $10,000 apiece to state Democratic parties across the country, the maximum allowed by an individual to a state party under federal election laws.
Bloomberg has actively used his fortune to help get Democrats elected in the 2018 midterms. Ahead of the election, he funneled more than $60 million into his own Independence USA PAC which helped candidates up and down the ballot. He also contributed $20 million to the Senate Majority PAC focused on aiding Democrats running for Senate seats, as well as contributing to other PACs and Democratic candidates directly across the country.
At the time of the end of his presidential bid, however, Bloomberg was responsible for more than half of all ad spending in the 2020 election cycle. In the wake of his exit, President Trump fired off a series of tweets blasting Bloomberg's historic spending.
"I could have told him long ago that he didn't have what it takes, and he would have saved himself a billion dollars, the real cost. Now he will pour money into Sleepy Joe's campaign, hoping to save face. It won't work," Mr. Trump tweeted.
