Bloomberg to transfer $18M to DNC to defeat Trump

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will transfer $18 million to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and plans to consolidate his massive campaign organization behind the national party in an effort to defeat President Trump in November.

Bloomberg, who spent more than $500 million on his own doomed campaign for the Democratic nomination, has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president. Biden has opened up a big lead in delegates over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and is widely viewed as the party’s likely nominee.

The $18 million donation from Bloomberg is $6 million more than the DNC raised in all of February and is nearly double the national party’s January haul.

The gift of money and organization marks a huge windfall for the DNC, which has not been remotely competitive with the Republican National Committee on either front in recent years.

Bloomberg had previously planned to launch his own independent entity to support the Democratic nominee against Trump.

Instead, Bloomberg has decided that his money and organization would be better utilized under one roof at the DNC.

“While we considered creating our own independent entity to support the nominee and hold the President accountable, this race is too important to have many competing groups with good intentions but that are not coordinated and united in strategy and execution,” Bloomberg said in a memo to DNC Chairman Tom Perez.

“The dynamics of the race have also fundamentally changed, and it is critically important that we all do everything we can to support our eventual nominee and scale the Democratic Party’s general election efforts,” he added.

The former New York City mayor will also transfer his former field offices to local party affiliates in key battleground states, and his team will assist in getting state parties up to speed in hiring, data and operations, according to the memo.

“The campaign believes this investment will dramatically expand the DNC’s Battleground Build-Up 2020 efforts across battleground states, drawing in part from our own incredibly experienced and talented organizing staff,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg has not laid out a media strategy for the 2020 presidential campaign yet, but it’s possible he could still spend tens of millions on the airwaves in an effort to defeat Trump.

“We need to compete with the war chest that Donald Trump, the RNC, and their right-wing allies have amassed, and this will go a long way in ensuring that we can fund the grassroots efforts in key battleground states that will be necessary to win this November,” said Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield.

Updated at 11:50 a.m.