Michael Bloomberg
While the former mayor of New York — and the tenth richest person in America according to Forbes — isn’t running against President Donald Trump in 2020, Michael Bloomberg other big plans for 2020 and beyond. In an op-ed posted to his namesake website, Bloomberg said he was “clear-eyed about the difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination in such a crowded field.” Bloomberg, who re-joined the Democratic party in October, has decided to spend his fortune on efforts that will undermine President Trump’s agenda. “While there would be no higher honor than serving as president, my highest obligation as a citizen is to help the country the best way I can,” Bloomberg writes. He announced a campaign to eliminate the United States’ use of fossil fuels.
In his new grassroots initiative entitled “Beyond Carbon,” he plans to “begin moving America as quickly as possible away from oil and gas and toward a 100% clean energy economy.” This initiative is an expansion of Bloomberg’s “Beyond Coal” campaign that launched in 2011. So far, that initiative has helped to shut down over 285 power plants (with 245 to go) and provide clean energy to thousands of people.
Bloomberg also wants to shift more attention on gun violence. He largely financed the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund Inc. “Congress has not passed a major gun safety bill in nearly 25 years. Last week the Democratic House voted to approve a bill strengthening the background check system, but the Republican Senate is virtually guaranteed to block it,” he wrote.
Bloomberg has been exploring other ways to play a major role in the 2020 election as well. According to the Associated Press, “he’s consulting several top advisers to former President Barack Obama, including David Plouffe, the architect of Obama’s 2008 campaign; data guru Dan Wagner; and Mitch Stewart, Obama’s battlefield-states director.”
The Leadership Connection:
Our people intelligence service provides an opportunity to connect with key members at interest groups such as Beyond Coal, led by Mary Anne Hitt; and Everytown for Gun Safety, which is led by John Feinblatt.
