Bloomberg at 3 Percent in New Poll as He Plans $100 Million Ad Blitz

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is at 3 percent in a new poll—tied with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)—as he plans a $100 million advertisement campaign against President Donald Trump.

Bloomberg, 77, has still not committed to a 2020 bid but he appears to be moving toward entering the race. He filed to be on the ballot in Alabama and Arkansas, the states with the first filing deadlines, before beginning the digital campaign.

The campaign, which targets voters in four general election battleground states—Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—was set to start running on Friday, according to Bloomberg spokesman Jason Schechter.

Bloomberg himself is not featured in the ad campaign.

“We will have other ads that feature Mike Bloomberg,” Howard Wolfson, a top political adviser to Bloomberg, told the New York Times. “You will be seeing a lot of Mike Bloomberg.”

“We’re very clear: A case that we make for Mike is that he is the best candidate to take on Trump, and one of the reasons he is the best candidate is he can take the fight to him immediately and robustly,” Wolfson said, noting the blitz would be focused on anti-Trump content.

One example of a new ad: An image of Trump’s Twitter account that says, “A TWEET SHOULDN’T THREATEN OUR COUNTRY’S SECURITY.”

Meanwhile, a new poll from Reuters/Ipsos shows that Bloomberg would be tied in fifth if he entered the race.

Shown a sample ballot of Democratic candidates, 3 percent of respondents said they’d vote for Bloomberg. He was tied with Harris.

They were both behind Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Vice President Joe Biden, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Biden and Sanders were tied in first at 19 percent, followed by Warren (13 percent) and Buttigieg (6 percent).

Bloomberg was ahead of a number of candidates who have been in the race for months, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Respondents indicated more familiarity with Bloomberg than Buttigieg but less than Sanders, Warren, and Biden. Bloomberg had lower favorability ratings than the three frontrunners.

The poll (pdf) was conducted from Nov. 12 to Nov. 14 among 2,235, including 958 Democrats and 249 Independents, with a plus/minor error percentage of 3.6 percent for Democrats. The ballot including Bloomberg was only shown to 685 respondents.

Out of the respondents, 18 percent said they don’t know who they’ll vote for, 6 percent said they can’t or won’t vote in a Democratic primary, and 2 percent chose “other.”

The poll did not include former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who formally announced his bid for the nomination on Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.