In preparation for a run for the presidency, billionaire businessman, gun control activist and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is expected to file for the Alabama Democrat presidential primary on Friday to beat that state’s filing deadline, according to a report by the New York Times and confirmed by a Bloomberg spokesman to CNN Thursday evening.

“Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to file for the Alabama Democratic 2020 presidential primary, a Bloomberg spokesperson told CNN on Thursday…Bloomberg dispatched staffers to Alabama to get enough signatures to qualify for the primary, according to the Times…

Breaking News: Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman, is expected to file to be on Alabama’s presidential primary ballot, an adviser said, though he has not yet decided to run https://t.co/hYw0WzFflo — The New York Times (@nytimes) November 7, 2019

Bloomberg had said back in March he would not seek the presidency.

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The crowded field of Democrat presidential candidates has started to shake out, with some dropouts and some floundering campaigns cutting staff with four top candidates far ahead of the pack: Aging leftist Baby Boomers former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) and young man in a hurry Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, but each is seen as unlikely to beat President Trump next year, regardless of what polls say now.

Perceived as mainstream, but actually very liberal/left, Biden has seen his lead slip as President Trump has hammered him over corruption related to his time as Vice President when his son Hunter was cashing in on foreign nations Biden dealt with.

Leftist Warren has proposed a Medicare-for-All program that would take away private health insurance and massively raise taxes that is being seen as alienating more voters than it attracts.

Sanders is an aging socialist who had a heart attack recently and whose stamina for the job, combined with his far left policies will give general election voters much to worry about.

The youthful far left Buttigieg is green on the national scene and his dismal record as mayor of South Bend has gone unchallenged as he has stayed in the middle of the pack until recently.

The establishment dual fears of a socialist winning or Trump getting reelected appears to be driving Bloomberg’s rethinking the presidential race. Bloomberg being a strong campaigner for gun control will help some and hurt him in a general election, given Trump’s steadfast support of the Second Amendment that will alow Trump to portray Bloomberg as a gun-grabber.