Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially joined the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday.

"I'm running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America. We cannot afford four more years of President Trump's reckless and unethical actions. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage," Bloomberg said in a statement.

The 77-year-old business man, who boasts a net worth exceeding $50 billion, called President Donald Trump "an existential threat to our country and our values."

Bloomberg's entry into the race has been speculated for months. It comes at a time when Democratic strategists question frontrunner Joe Biden's general election fitness, as well as whether popular far-left candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders can win enough support from moderate Democrats to defeat Trump in a general election matchup.

Bloomberg's entry into the race was preceded by one of the biggest campaign ad buys in history. From NBC News:

Bloomberg's entry was preceded by news of a massive television ad buy — $31 million, according to Advertising Analytics, which told NBC News it was the single largest single week expenditure the firm had ever tracked. A $30 million buy in the final weeks of the 2012 race for then-President Barack Obama held the previous record.



The ad promotes Bloomberg's record as mayor and then promises "to rebuild the country and restore faith in the dream that defines us: where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middle class get their fair share; everyone without health insurance can get it and everyone who likes theirs, keep it; where jobs won't just help you get by but get ahead. And on all those things, Mike Bloomberg intends to make good."

However, Bloomberg has his work cut out for him. With the early primaries and caucuses just months away, Bloomberg lacks the state-level infrastructure critical to winning the Democratic nomination.

Because of his late entry into the race, Bloomberg will mount an "unconventional primary campaign," the New York Times reported, by ignoring the earliest primary and caucus states in February to instead focus on "delegate-rich March primaries in states such as California and Texas."

Bloomberg will finance his own campaign.