Former New York City Mayor and current billionaire Mike Bloomberg knows all too well the pull of wanting to run as an independent for the White House – there were rumors he was considering running for President in 2008 and 2012, but he opted to not.
In a just-released statement apparently in response to news another billionaire, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is strongly considering running for President, as a “centrist independent,” the former NYC mayor offered this advice: don’t.
“I have never been a partisan guy — and it’s no secret that I looked at an independent bid in the past,” Bloomberg, who has been a Democrat, Republican, and independent, writes. “In fact I faced exactly the same decision now facing others who are considering it,” he said, presumably referring to Schultz.
“The data was very clear and very consistent. Given the strong pull of partisanship and the realities of the electoral college system, there is no way an independent can win. That is truer today than ever before,” Bloomberg notes.
“In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That’s a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can’t afford to run it now,” he adds.
Bloomberg, who late last year re-joined the Democratic Party and may be considering a presidential run himself, says Democrats “must remain united, and we must not allow any candidate to divide or fracture us.”
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Image by Mike Bloomberg via Flickr and a CC license