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POLITICS

ELECTION 2020

Wall Street Journal - Bloomberg Campaign Kicks Off ‘Long Haul’ Strategy in North Carolina

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s strategy is to campaign in the state beyond the Super Tuesday primary.

By Tarini Parti

December 16, 2019

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign, which has so far invested more than $100 million on TV ads, launched the ground-game portion of its operation Sunday, opening a field office in a state where most other Democrats have none.

The investment in North Carolina, one of the Super Tuesday states that will hold Democratic primaries on March 3, is part of Mr. Bloomberg’s overlapping primary and general-election strategy that his advisers believe keeps their sights on President Trump while putting resources into states that are more delegate-rich than the earlier nominating contests.

The former New York City mayor is bypassing the first four nominating contests and competing only in states that start voting in early March, some of which will be competitive in a general election against Mr. Trump.

The new office, the first of 11 the campaign plans to open in the Tar Heel State alone, is less than a mile from the arena where Mr. Trump will once again accept his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention. It already has nearly two dozen staff members.

Even if he doesn’t become the Democratic nominee, Mr. Bloomberg plans to keep the offices in North Carolina open to help the party in the general election, he said Sunday. He previously announced a commitment of $15 million to $20 million to register 500,000 voters in five states, including North Carolina.

“We are here for the long haul,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the office opening Sunday afternoon, after attending a service at a local church with the city’s mayor.

“Other campaigns come in, and then they disappear after Super Tuesday. But we’re here, and we’re going to stay here not just through Super Tuesday but through the Republican Convention, when you-know-who comes to town. And we’ll be staying through Nov. 3, when we defeat you-know-who and turn North Carolina blue,” he said.

Of the top-tier presidential candidates, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the only one with offices and staff in the state—four offices and 20 staffers, according to her campaign. The bulk of Ms. Warren’s investments, like those of most other presidential candidates, have been in states that will vote before North Carolina.

“What you see candidates doing in Iowa and New Hampshire, we’ll be doing all over the country,” said Kevin Sheekey, Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign manager.

The campaign already has 200 staffers in its headquarters and 100 in the states. It is expected to hire hundreds of organizers in coming weeks and to announce more field offices, including in general election battleground states.

As the campaign looks to scale up quickly, top officials have been reaching out to Democratic operatives and activists with high-paying offers, according to people familiar with the activity.

Even field organizers are being offered salaries of $6,000 a month—much higher than what campaigns usually pay for that position. Some Democrats who have been approached for higher-level jobs said they were asked to suggest their desired salary to come onboard.

Ms. Warren, one of the Democratic candidates who has been targeting Mr. Bloomberg for plowing his own money into his campaign, brought up his spending on Sunday. “This is more than has ever been spent in the history of the universe,” Ms. Warren said in Iowa. “He spends this money and he’s got, what is it, four points in the polls? Five points in the polls?”

Although Mr. Bloomberg faces a tough path to the Democratic nomination, his campaign isn’t talking much about his primary opponents. In TV ads so far, Mr. Bloomberg has introduced himself to voters and sought to draw a contrast between himself and Mr. Trump, attacking the president as the “very biggest threat” to America’s future.

“This guy spends his time tweeting,” one ad says before laying out Mr. Bloomberg’s record as a contrast. “This guy gets things done.”

Mr. Trump has in turn tried to brand Mr. Bloomberg as “Mini Mike” in tweets, and his campaign has said it would exclude from its rallies reporters from the former mayor’s news organization, Bloomberg News. After Mr. Bloomberg announced his White House bid, his company said it wouldn’t investigate the Democratic candidates.

Mr. Bloomberg is still in single digits in national polls. A recent CBS survey of Super Tuesday states found him at 4%, behind former Vice President Joe Biden, Ms. Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Mr. Bloomberg, however, said he was an “optimist.” “In terms of people’s skepticism, you know, it’s easy to find faults and easy to find scenarios where things don’t work,” Mr. Bloomberg said on Friday. “I never lived in that world, I just think tomorrow is going to be better than today.”

Amos Beason, a 52-year-old who works in finance in Charlotte, attended Mr. Bloomberg’s office opening and said he was strongly considering backing the candidate, because he doesn’t think others in the crowded Democratic field could win North Carolina.

“I don’t believe the other candidates give a damn about fiscal responsibility,” he said.

Regardless of whether he ends up as the nominee, Mr. Bloomberg is expected to stay heavily involved in backing whoever wins the nomination. He has already made multimillion-dollar commitments against Mr. Trump, including a $100 million anti-Trump digital ad campaign in swing states and a $10 million contribution to a group boosting vulnerable House Democrats.

Mr. Bloomberg’s advisers declined to give an estimate of how much he is prepared to spend to defeat Mr. Trump if he isn’t on the ballot.

“Listen, I think he is in many ways you know the most forceful and effective force inside the Democratic Party,” Mr. Sheekey said, “whether he’s a candidate or whether he’s not a candidate.”

—Emily Glazer and Joshua Jamerson contributed to this article.

Write to Tarini Parti at Tarini.Parti@wsj.com