September 13, 2020

Bloomberg Is Finally Ready to Open His Wallet for Biden

The billionaire is committing $100 million to help in Florida—roughly 10 percent of what he spent on his own campaign.

Greg Lovett/ZUMA

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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who pledged to spend big in order to help Democrats beat Donald Trump this November, is committing $100 million to support Joe Biden in the critical battleground state of Florida, where the former vice president is struggling to gain traction with the state’s Latino voters. 

The announcement on Sunday comes on the heels of Trump’s promise to spend “whatever it takes” of his own money after his campaign reportedly squandered its substantial cash advantage against Biden. (As my colleague Russ Choma wrote, it’s unclear if Trump even has enough cash on hand to make a real dent in the race.) Polls in Florida show that Biden’s lead in the Sunshine State has shrunk to a virtual tie in recent weeks. A senior adviser to Bloomberg said that the influx of cash in a notoriously expensive state for TV ads will free up Biden to spend campaign funds in other key states like Pennsylvania, where polls have similarly tightened.

Bloomberg’s commitment will come as a relief to Democrats, some of whom have wondered when the billionaire would be prepared to finally fulfill his promises to use his fortune to defeat Trump. But it also doesn’t appear to have come easily. The New York Times reported last week that Biden groups made multiple overtures to convince the billionaire to open his wallet to help in Florida, but Bloomberg aides largely resisted because the billionaire just wasn’t ready yet.

And while the $100 million marks a significant commitment, it’s still only 10 percent of what Bloomberg spent on his own presidential ambitions and 10 percent of the $1 billion he signaled he’d be willing to spend in order defeat Trump back in January, when he was still running for president and attempting to demonstrate unity with his Democratic rivals.

Of course, there’s still time to spend more, but with just 50 days to go till November 3, it’s hard to imagine Bloomberg suddenly pouring in an extra $900 million when it took him this long to commit to a fraction of that. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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