Calling himself the ‘UnTrump,’ Bloomberg returned to NC Thursday with new endorsements
Calling himself the “unTrump,” Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg returned to North Carolina on Thursday with rising poll numbers and a new endorsement from a former governor.
Bloomberg’s visit to Raleigh and the Triad came as the fast-changing primary landscape turns to the Carolinas and Super Tuesday.
“I am running as a candidate for change,” he told a midday crowd at Raleigh’s Union Station. “I am running as a candidate for sanity . . . for honesty, inclusion and passion. And I am running a campaign for human decency.”
Introducing the former New York City mayor was former Gov. Bev Perdue, who was named a co-chair of his state campaign. His appearance came on the first day of early voting in the state’s March 3 primaries.
In Raleigh, as earlier in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, Bloomberg took aim at his favorite target — President Donald Trump.
“Let me be clear,” he said in Raleigh, drawing his biggest applause, “I am running to defeat Donald Trump.”
While Bloomberg rode his bus through the Piedmont, Trump blasted him as “a LOSER who has money but can’t debate and has zero presence.”
“Mini Mike is a 5’4” mass of dead energy who does not want to be on the debate stage with these professional politicians,” the president tweeted. “He reminds me of a tiny version of Jeb ‘Low Energy’ Bush.” (Bloomberg’s in fact 5-foot-7, according to the New York Times.)
“He’s seen our poll numbers and he’s scared,” Bloomberg said. “We all know Trump is a bully. But we know how to deal with bullies.”
Spending $8.6 million in N.C.
Bloomberg’s third visit to North Carolina came less than three weeks before Super Tuesday, when North Carolina will hold one of 16 nominating contests. Only Texas and California will have more delegates at stake that day.
Polls show Bloomberg is running third in North Carolina behind former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Real Clear Politics put him at an average of 15% support in the state.
Bloomberg also was third in a national Quinnipiac Poll released this week. He was at 15% behind Sanders’ 25% and Biden’s 17%.
A billionaire businessman, Bloomberg has spent heavily. Nationally, his advertising is over $300 million. That includes $8.6 million in North Carolina, according to Advertising Analytics — far more than any other candidate. He’s also got a paid staff of over 100 in the state.
Bloomberg scored big endorsements this week with Perdue as well as Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles.
“I wanted somebody who was a doer, who was an adult in the room who could fix things,” Perdue told The Charlotte Observer. “I think he’s the only candidate in the race to have the potential to bring independents and Republicans along with him.”
Former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl Jr. also is co-chairing the Bloomberg campaign.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg picked up another N.C. endorsement.
Businessman Tommy Hendrickson has been a long-time Democratic fundraiser. Most recently he raised money for Biden. He said he decided to switch on Tuesday, the day of the New Hampshire primary.
“Bloomberg gives us the best path to move forward and win and do what we need to do to win in North Carolina,” Hendrickson said. “I believe there’s an excitement with Bloomberg and an ability to . . . go toe to toe with (President Donald) Trump that’s going to be very valuable to the Democratic Party in the fall.”
Hendrickson’s daughter Katie is Bloomberg’s state political director.
‘Stop-and-frisk’ policy
In an brief interview with The News & Observer, Bloomberg said his push to reduce gun violence isn’t “gun control,” but an effort to get the federal government to close loopholes in background checks.
“There’s a federal law that says gun stores can’t sell to minors, to people with psychiatric problems or people with criminal records,” Bloomberg said. “That law should apply to sales on the internet and also at gun shows.”
Bloomberg didn’t dispute that Trump is riding a strong economy, but he downplayed how much the president is responsible.
This week Bloomberg found himself on the defensive over comments he made in 2015 at the Aspen Institute regarding New York’s minority neighborhoods and “stop-and-frisk” policy.
“People say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana who are all minorities’,” he said at the time. “Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why’d we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is.”
Denna Weston, a financial manager from Raleigh, said she was troubled by the stop-and-frisk policy during Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor that targeted minority residents. She said she hasn’t settled on Bloomberg yet and wanted to hear his vision for the country. But she said he was a far better choice than Trump and has the best chance of beating him.
James McCants and Ambrose Bond, two African American men seated together in what was a largely white Raleigh audience, said defeating Trump is goal number one.
“Once we get him out of office we can discuss the issues,” said McCants, who is on disability after a kidney transplant. “I think (Bloomberg) is the man who can beat Donald Trump and I think Trump’s getting a little shaky, getting nervous.”
“That’s why he’s started to attack,” said Bond, a semi-retired insurance salesman and landscape company owner.
Interviewed Wednesday, Perdue said she can look past Bloomberg’s 2015 comments.
“All of us have said things and done things and made a mistake or did something ... . . that in retrospect was wrong,” she said. “He came out and said he was sorry.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
