Billionaire presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said Democrats can’t “take battleground states like Minnesota for granted” after opening a field office in Minneapolis Thursday.
The Minneapolis office is the first of eight offices the former New York City mayor plans to open in the state, his campaign said.
“We can’t take battleground states like Minnesota for granted; the margin of victory in 2016 was barely 44,000 votes,” said Bloomberg. “That’s why we’re not waiting to organize and invest in Minnesota, and why we opened an office in Minneapolis today.”
We can’t take battleground states like Minnesota for granted; the Democratic margin of victory in 2016 was barely 44,000 votes. That’s why we’re not waiting to organize and invest in Minnesota, and why we opened an office in Minneapolis today. pic.twitter.com/k8LWDaA1VD
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 24, 2020
Bloomberg suggested he was more qualified for the presidency than Sen. Amy Klobuchar in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio.
“Her experience as a legislator is the same experience that Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have,” he said. “It’s great if you’re in the Senate, but it isn’t terribly useful if you’ve got to manage something.”
The opening of his Minneapolis campaign office marked Bloomberg’s second visit to the state in January. Earlier this month, he visited with soybean farmers in Wells, Minnesota to discuss “rural economic issues.”
Kayleigh McEnany, President Donald Trump’s national campaign spokesperson, told WCCO after Bloomberg’s visit that it’s “safe to say we’ll be back in Minnesota.”
“We are absolutely investing in the state, and we are making a heavy play for the state of Minnesota,” she said.
It’s no secret that President Trump wants to become the first Republican to win Minnesota since President Richard Nixon and his campaign told The Minnesota Sun that he is taking the state “very seriously.”
According to estimates from FiveThirtyEight, Bloomberg—who has an estimated net worth of $60 billion—has already spent $5.4 million on TV advertisements in Minnesota alone. He’s poured $200 million nationally into ads since announcing his campaign.
Average national polling has Bloomberg in fourth place overall, ahead of Klobuchar but behind Sanders, Warren, and Biden, who has yet to make a visit to Minnesota.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Michael Bloomberg” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
