Michael Bloomberg will not be the Democratic nominee for the presidency. Neither the money he has spent thus far in the race nor all the money he is prepared to spend in the months ahead will make it substantially easier for him to secure a majority of pledged delegates at the Democratic National Convention, a task that will be daunting even for the candidates currently ahead of him in the polls. His only hope, if one assumes he’s running to win and not to play a kingmaker role, is that the delegates at the convention might choose him if no one else has established the necessary majority on the first ballot.

This is a scenario that would dangerously divide Democrats even if the chosen nominee were substantially less controversial than Bloomberg has already proven himself to be since entering the race. Over the past few weeks, a wide variety of matters from Bloomberg’s past—his stop-and-frisk policy as mayor of New York, his previous comments on everything from redlining to end-of-life care, and his alleged history of sexual discrimination and harassment—have been litigated in the press. But even if those issues make Bloomberg’s nomination exceptionally unlikely, the responses his campaign has already garnered have told us much about the party that he hopes to represent in November—a party in which he has apparently purchased a substantial interest.



On Saturday, The New York Times ran a piece on Bloomberg’s past decade of political giving that names him “the single most important political donor to the Democratic Party and its causes.” His fortune, it stated, “fuels an advocacy network that has directed policy in dozens of states and cities; mobilized movements to take on gun violence and climate change; rewritten election laws and health regulations; and elected scores of politicians to offices as modest as the school board and as lofty as the Senate.” That network, as luck would have it, is now proving itself useful to Bloomberg’s campaign. According to the Times, former members of the gun control group Moms Demand Action were surprised to discover that Bloomberg had rented their email list for use by his campaign shortly before announcing his run in November—a move that followed the gradual commandeering of the organization by the Bloomberg-funded group Everytown.



Even Bloomberg’s ostensibly philanthropic giving—which, as the Times noted, just happened to reach a five-year high last year—is yielding dividends for his candidacy.

Even Bloomberg’s ostensibly philanthropic giving—which, as the Times noted, just happened to reach a five-year high last year—is yielding dividends for his candidacy. Over 100 mayors have endorsed Bloomberg since he launched his campaign, a fact the Times attributed to former members of Bloomberg Philanthropies who have since transitioned to his campaign pointedly reaching out to former beneficiaries. One of those mayors leads the city Bloomberg hopes to occupy. Bloomberg Philanthropies has given millions to the government of Washington, D.C., and various local organizations in recent years. The city’s current mayor, Muriel Bowser, who has called Bloomberg “a mentor and a friend,” has been keen on returning the favor since he began his campaign. Bowser greeted his announcement in November with a tweet heralding the arrival of “an important voice.” That was followed by an official endorsement in January. And late last week, it was reported that D.C. residents have been receiving mysterious calls from a pollster testing responses to a Bloomberg-Bowser ticket.



Bowser was asked about her enthusiasm for Bloomberg’s candidacy by The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner in an interview that ran Saturday. During their conversation, Bowser falsely stated that Bloomberg had ended his discriminatory stop-and-frisk policy before he left office as New York’s mayor in 2013. Asked about the numerous allegations of harassment and discrimination leveled against Bloomberg and his company, Bowser went silent:

