Bloomberg spent more than $100 on each of his Super Tuesday votes


Michael Bloomberg's expensive 2020 failure was actually a bargain, depending on how you look at it.
The former New York City mayor is now a former Democratic presidential candidate, dropping out after he failed to win a single state and more than a handful of delegates on Super Tuesday. The Washington Post has since evaluated how much Bloomberg spent for the votes he did get, and it's at least $130 each, at least when it comes to the states whose vote totals were completely reported by Wednesday afternoon.
Bloomberg funneled more than $500 million of his own money into his now-busted campaign, with a huge $15.4 million of that funding ads in Texas. Break that down by vote, and Bloomberg spent $170 on every person in Texas who cast a ballot for him. He spent even more, $220, on every one of his voters in Minnesota, and only narrowly beat Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) there despite the fact that she wasn't even running anymore.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Even the $60 Bloomberg spent on each vote in Virginia seems like a lot when you consider it could've bought everyone a few dozen of the Big Gulps that Bloomberg despises so much. Food, shelter, and climate action are also viable alternatives. Then again, former Democratic candidate Tom Steyer spent about $1,850 for each of the 10,272 votes he got in New Hampshire, so Bloomberg can consider the inconsequential spending game a win.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from