As Democratic voters have become more aware of Mike Bloomberg, an increasing number have said they’d be unsatisfied with the billionaire as the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, according to a new Insider poll.
The number of Democratic voters who said they would be unsatisfied with Bloomberg as the nominee jumped up roughly 19 percentage points between late January and late February.
For the past several months, Insider has been conducting a recurring SurveyMonkey Audience poll to track the state of the 2020 Democratic primary field. You can download every poll here, down to the individual respondent data. (Read more about how the Insider Democratic primary tracker works here).
On January 29, about 30% of Democratic voters said they would be unsatisfied with the former New York City mayor as the nominee. By February 27, that number was up to 49%.
Over the course of the same time period, Bloomberg spent millions of dollars on ads, projecting his face on television screens across the US, and appeared in his first presidential debate. The New York billionaire has spent over $500 million on television, radio and digital advertising since he joined the race, which accounts for over half of all spending on ads in the 2020 election cycle, per CNN.
Bloomberg hopped in the 2020 race in late November. Around that time, Insider polling found that about 40.5% of Democratic voters said they would be unsatisfied with him as the nominee, with about 60% saying there were “aware” of who Bloomberg was.
Fast-forward to late February and nearly 76% of Democratic voters said they were aware of Bloomberg, while roughly half said they would be unsatisfied if the party nominates him for president.
The percentage of Democrats who know of Bloomberg who said they would be unsatisfied with Bloomberg as the nominee gradually rose between late January and early February. Here’s a breakdown:
December 27: 36%
January 10: 35%
January 22: 34%
January 29: 30%
February 7: 31%
February 18: 38%
February 27: 49%
Bloomberg, who is worth roughly $55 billion, has yet to face voters in the 2020 primary season. He skipped the first four contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. His first big test comes on Super Tuesday, the most important day in the Democratic primary season.
*Story by Business Insider