Michael Bloomberg Ends His Campaign After Dismal Super Tuesday Performance

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:57 am

After Super Tuesday election results showed he was only going to receive a handful of delegates, Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign.

As of 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Bloomberg had won just 12 delegates of the 1,338 set to be awarded out from the set of primary election races that took place the day before. Those 12 delegates represent the total number Bloomberg has won since the start of the Democratic nominating contests.

“Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump,” Bloomberg said in a statement on his campaign website. “Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump — because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult.”

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

He added that he remained “clear-eyed” about the long-term objective in entering the race, and said that he would be endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden to win upcoming Democratic Party’s nomination contests.

“I’ve had the chance to work with Joe on those issues over the years, and Joe has fought for working people his whole life. Today I am glad to endorse him — and I will work to make him the next President of the United States,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg’s massive influx of campaign spending resulted in a number of media markets blasting his commercials, on radio, television and internet ads. According to one calculation, Bloomberg spent more than $5 million in advertising for every delegate he won on Super Tuesday.

Those commercials and the rest of his campaign apparatus aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon: In January, Bloomberg announced that he would continue to fund his team’s work through November, even if he wasn’t the party’s nominee.

“Mike Bloomberg is either going to be the nominee or the most important person supporting the Democratic nominee for president. He is dedicated to getting Trump out of the White House,” Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg’s campaign manager, said at the time.

Chris Walker

Chris Walker is a freelance journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin, who focuses on news, politics, and analysis of world events. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, since 2005 Chris has reported on workers’ rights protests in Wisconsin, opined on four separate presidential elections and written on a number of other political subjects for a variety of national online publications.