Billionaire Michael Bloomberg enters the 2020 race, files paperwork to run for president

Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has filed the paperwork to enter the race for the White House as a Democrat.

Bloomberg officially entered the 2020 competition on Thursday, according to Federal Election Commission fillings. In the days previously, the billionaire had unveiled plans to bankroll voter-registration drives in five battleground states, and launched a $100 million advertising campaign attacking President Donald Trump in four swing states.

Bloomberg enters a field of Democratic hopefuls rapidly whittling down to four frontrunners: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren; Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Though Bloomberg ran New York City as a Republican for a decade, he registered as a Democrat last year and has been a critic of vocal critic of Trump.

The former mayor and media mogul is by far the wealthiest of any candidate running for the presidency. His fortune is estimated by Forbes to stand at $52.3 billion, dwarfing Trump’s net worth of $3.1 billion and making him the ninth-richest person in the world.

Bernie Sanders - well known for his polemics against wealth inequality - has blasted Bloomberg’s political aspirations before, telling the billionaire “You ain’t gonna buy this election” at a rally in Iowa earlier this month.

Were Bloomberg to win his party’s nomination, next year’s election would be a showdown between two 70-something-year-old New York billionaires. Progressives like Sanders and Warren will no doubt remind voters of these similarities on the campaign trail.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!