Bloomberg’s Anti-Gun Presidential Campaign a Bust

Credit: Photo by Gage Skidmore courtesy of Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday after an abysmal showing on Super Tuesday and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.

“After yesterday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible, and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists,” said Bloomberg in a statement on his campaign website.

Having made gun control one of his campaign’s central tenets, including a $10 million gun-control ad during the Super Bowl, Bloomberg reportedly spent over a half-billion dollars throughout his campaign and only had one victory, in American Samoa where he received 175 votes, to show for it.

Super Tuesday was Bloomberg’s first time appearing on the ballot as he entered the race too late to appear on earlier ones. He reportedly spent $224 million on ads in Super Tuesday states, which amounts to roughly $5.1 million spent per delegate won.

The former mayor failed to place higher than third in any state contest, including Virginia, where he and his anti-gun groups spent heavily over the past years. According to an ad-spending breakdown, he spent $5.6 million in the state and had not a single delegate to show for it as Biden took the lion’s share, followed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Bloomberg’s anti-Second Amendment agenda was no secret. His proposals included a “universal” background check law, bans on popular semi-automatic rifles and “high-capacity magazines,” the repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act and much more.

Bloomberg also made clear his disdain for average, everyday Americans carrying their firearms. Earlier this year, he said, “You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place,” just days after a lawfully armed citizen took down a murderer seconds after he opened fire in a Texas church. He was also called out publicly on his hypocrisy to travel with an armed security detail.

With Bloomberg’s exit from the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination, only Biden, Sanders, Warren and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard remain. His endorsement of Biden adds to a growing list of recently departed presidential candidates, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. None of these candidates think much of the Second Amendment.