Huge staff, ad blitzes, free T-shirts: How billionaire Michael Bloomberg is campaigning for the White House
RICHMOND, Va. – Sean Mee walked the streets of this city's trendy Fan District with a simple message: Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg will "get it done."
Mee, whose late wife spent 10 years battling cancer, said he was convinced that the self-funding billionaire Bloomberg could deliver on his highest priority of providing healthcare for those who need it.
The 63-year-old retiree was initially interested in Pete Buttigieg but after hearing the former South Bend mayor make a big fundraising appeal for his Super Tuesday push, Mee said he decided his campaign lacked the war chest needed to win the White House.
"I don't know how you can't take the fight to President Trump when you're struggling like that," he told USA TODAY.
Mee was among a handful of volunteers who spread out on Sunday from the Bloomberg campaign’s office in the Fan District, walking through the neighborhood lined with historic Victorian homes. On Monument Avenue, a main boulevard in the Fan District, statues of Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee coexist with a statue of black tennis star Arthur Ashe.
Just a couple miles west of the city's downtown, the Bloomberg field office occupied a former dance studio on the city's busy Broad Street sandwiched between a cell phone shop on one side, and a dentist on the other. A boba shop sat just down the block from the office for staff and volunteers to get their fill of milk tea.
Democratic candidates and their supporters were in favorable territory in the heavily Democratic city, where Hillary Clinton won 78.6% of the vote in the 2016 general election.
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Although Bloomberg has spent more than a half-billion dollars nationwide on digital, radio, and TV ads and offered high pay scales for staff, the campaign was running what seemed to be a traditional ground game in Richmond – every volunteer had a clipboard, a map, and a list of houses to knock on.
Bloomberg, who joined the presidential race in November, is staking everything on Super Tuesday, when a third of the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination are up for grabs. With 99 pledged delegates at stake, Virginia is a state that could be crucial for him. Other large Super Tuesday states include California, Texas and North Carolina.
The former New York City mayor has had to scale up quickly. The Fan District office opened just two weeks ago, and three others in Arlington, Roanoke, and Charlottesville opened earlier in the month.
The campaign has since hired over 80 staffers, added three other offices in Manassas, Hampton Roads, and Danville, and deluged the state in at least $4.8 million in radio and television advertisements, according to ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics.
According to analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project, of the 2,697 ad airings in the Richmond media market from Jan. 1 until Feb. 23, 87% of the ads were from the Bloomberg campaign.
Bernie Sanders, the Democratic frontrunner, has two offices in Virginia and has spent a little over $12,000 on ads, Advertising Analytics says. The Biden campaign announced a "six-figure" ad buy in eight Super Tuesday states on Wednesday, though his team had not aired ads before then.
Recent polling suggests Bloomberg’s strategy may have paid off, with a Monmouth University poll from earlier in February putting him and Sanders tied at 22% in the state among Democratic voters. Both Bloomberg and Sanders would beat Trump in head-to-head matchups, according to a Roanoke College poll released Feb. 24.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. But as the former vice president struggles to raise cash after weak showings in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, some residents were curious about Bloomberg.
'I like Mike!'
Like countless other volunteers who had given time to presidential campaigns, the Bloomberg volunteers knocked on doors, pitched their candidate, and then marked down the results of their conversations.
Over a couple of hours, Mee knocked on the doors of 11 homes where residents seemed receptive to Bloomberg’s message.
The backlash Bloomberg faced from protesters a week and a half earlier at the Virginia Democratic Party's Gala in Richmond was not evident as volunteers walked around.
“I like him too!” said some residents out walking their golden retriever who noticed Mee’s Bloomberg 2020 sticker and clipboard.
Another man shouted as Mee walked away, "we're old and have mortgages" to explain why he and others on his block would be supporting Bloomberg instead of Sanders.
Another man flashed his "I like Mike" yard sign after he opened his front door and saw the Bloomberg volunteer.
Every home was offered campaign brochures touting Bloomberg's record as New York City mayor and reducing gun violence, and if they wanted one, a volunteer offered to drop off a yard sign.
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Kathey Moore, a 69-year-old retiree out canvassing to collect signatures for Virginia Democrats Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Donald McEachin, said “I like Mike” as Mee passed by.
Moore told USA TODAY she viewed the former New York City mayor as a “problem solver” who would “assemble an excellent team” in the White House.
She backed Sanders in the 2016 election as a protest vote against Hillary Clinton, viewing her as too “corporate.” But this year, she's worried that candidates too far to the left might not be able to win in the general election on Nov. 3.
Bloomberg's support was tested in his first debate last week in Nevada where he faced an onslaught of criticism from the other candidates, but his supporters did not seem to mind.
Moore acknowledged Bloomberg's performance in the first debate was “horrible” to watch. Moore said, though, that Bloomberg had to explain his decisions to “one of the toughest audiences," and in her opinion, he did a "fabulous job as mayor”
Mee also said the Nevada debate was "hard to watch," but in his mind, the country wasn't looking to hire a "chief debater" but was "hiring a chief executive of the United States."
For the Bloomberg volunteers, their support for the former mayor came down to a test of electability against Trump.
Another volunteer, Sammie Hubbard, told USA TODAY he decided to support Bloomberg after a lot of research on the other candidates.
Walking back to the Bloomberg field office after canvassing, the 29-year-old EMT said he was a committed Democrat and a "fan of Bernie" but believes Sanders can't win.
An army of staff
Despite the candidate's wealth – which Forbes estimates at over $59 billion – the Richmond field office of the Bloomberg campaign was a spartan affair – the mirrors in the former dance studio had only recently been papered over.
Two tables laid out in the front of the office were covered in campaign paraphernalia and snacks like chips and Costco-brand sparkling water.
"I like Mike" signs covered the walls in the campaign's red-and-blue hue, and piles of neatly stacked T-shirts sat on shelves. All merchandise on the campaign website was sold at-cost, and shirts and lawn signs were free for the taking inside the office.
Because of Bloomberg's resources, he's been able to offer higher-than-average salaries, allowing him to amass an army of staff in almost all states.
A month after Bloomberg entered the race, the campaign said it had over 170 staff working across 20 states. Now, according to the Bloomberg campaign, they have over 2,400 staff, with 2,000 staff deployed in 43 states and territories, and 400 staff in their Times Square headquarters in New York City.
They have poured resources into other Super Tuesday states, opening 24 offices in California, 19 in Texas, eight in North Carolina, and seven in Tennessee.
A posting for a Bloomberg campaign field organizer position advertised a $6,000 per month salary – $72,000 on an annualized basis. The Sanders campaign advertised a $42,000 a year salary for a field organizer in Nevada, or about $3,500 per month.
Tom Manatos, who runs a prolific political jobs board, told USA TODAY in a phone interview the Bloomberg campaign was offering “far and above the best salary and accommodations for campaign staffers.”
Tavarris Spinks, who had been active in local Democratic politics and was the former Secretary of the Richmond City Democratic Committee, told USA TODAY the Bloomberg campaign had also been hiring "at least a few" people from the Richmond City Democratic Committee.
"He's really going hard in Richmond and Virginia," Spinks said, noting his home had already been canvassed twice by the Bloomberg campaign, though he supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
The campaign had made up for its late entry into the race by picking up talent from defunct campaigns, too.
Tyler Tucker, the deputy Virginia state director, had worked for Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign. Adnan Mohamed, the Virginia political director, previously worked for Beto O'Rourke and Seth Moulton. And Renzo Olivari, the Virginia communications director, previously worked for Kamala Harris.
Sanders' campaign did not allow USA TODAY to visit its field office in the city, but the campaign's presence is still felt.
Despite his lopsided loss to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary at both the city and state level, a building-sized mural of Sanders decorated the side of an art gallery off Broad Street, a main thoroughfare in Richmond. It was created after the 2016 Virginia primary by two muralists who wanted to show their support for the Vermont senator, according to RVA Magazine.
The wall used to have "Feel the Bern" painted next to it, but the block letters had since been painted over.
Richmond residents split
Despite the outreach and spending by the campaigns, other Richmond voters were still weighing their options.
Byron Hunter, a 36-year-old healthcare administrator walking along the city's waterfront, said he was still undecided, but he had followed the debates and was "slightly disappointed" by Bloomberg’s performance in the Nevada debate.
Hannah Kissel-Smith, a 27-year-old resident physician, told USA TODAY she was trying to vote from a “strategic point of view,” which led her to support Warren, because Kissel-Smith thought she could “win more moderate voters than Sanders.” She had supported entrepreneur Andrew Yang before he dropped out of the race.
The election still elicited excitement from other residents. Maya Blacken, a 20-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University student, said she was voting in her first presidential election – a "decent one to have as my first time, and it's important enough" she said.
She wanted to vote for a candidate who "I think has the best chance of winning since I don't want Trump to win" – which led her to both Biden and Sanders as potential choices.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bloomberg: Here's what a billionaire's Super Tuesday campaign is like
