/Bloomberg launches eight-figure TV ad campaign as he is expected to run for president

Bloomberg launches eight-figure TV ad campaign as he is expected to run for president

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who legally jumped into the presidential race Thursday after filing official paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), is making a pricey entrance with an eight figure television ad campaign.

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As of early afternoon Friday, ad service firm CMAG confirmed to ABC News that Bloomberg spending up to $25.4 million in ad buys in multiple states across the country, including California, New York, Florida, Texas and Illinois. The ads are set to air beginning Monday.

In those states, he is set to spend $2.3 million of the total in New York City, $1.5 million in Los Angeles, $1.1 million in Miami and another $1.1 million in Orlando.

According to CMAG, not all television stations have filed their ad buy records from Bloomberg yet, so the numbers are expected to increase.

Limited information is available on the actual ads, but according to ad buy records filed to the FEC, some of the ads will be 60-seconds long and are expected to air during the week of Nov. 25 through Dec. 3.

Bloomberg’s first ad buy is already more than half of the $50 million the entire 2020 Democratic presidential field has spent on television so far this year, according to CMAG’s data. Nearly $40 million of that came from billionaire activist Tom Steyer since he entered the race in July. Democratic front-runners Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg have aired about $2.8 million and $2.4 million worth of television ads.

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump has spent about $4.7 million on television, which brings the total for 2020’s ad spending up to about $55 million.

PHOTO: Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul and former New York City mayor, eats lunch with Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. after adding his name to the Democratic primary ballot in Little Rock, Ark., Nov. 12, 2019.Christopher Aluka Berry/Reuters, FILE

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul and former New York City mayor, eats lunch with Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. after adding his name to the Democratic primary ballot in Little Rock, Ark., Nov. 12, 2019.

The ad buy injects Bloomberg into the presidential contest, despite his team remaining adamant he has not made a final decision and is not formally a player in the race, just yet.

But Bloomberg continues to inch closer towards a formal announcement and is expected to self-fund his presidential campaign.

His wait-and-see approach isn’t stopping him from pouring millions into the 2020 race. Digital ads targeting Trump for his behavior, such as his “tantrums” and “lies,” started running on Facebook recently.

While the ads — part of a staggering $100 million digital ad blitz first reported by the New York Times — don’t feature Bloomberg, they showed the disclaimer “paid for by Mike Bloomberg 2020” and directed users to a sign-up page that urges them to “join the fight.”

Bloomberg also plans to spend between an estimated $15 million and $20 million on a voter registration effort to challenge President Trump in five key battlegrounds that could define the outcome of next year’s election.

Following his $100 million digital campaign targeting Trump’s behavior, a spokesperson for Bloomberg confirms that the former mayor of New York City will roll out a new push to register half a million Democratically-leaning, minority and underrepresented voters, including African Americans, Latinos, Asians, rural Americans and the youth voting bloc, in early 2020 .

The new drive will kick off across Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin but could expand into other states.

The Associated Press first reported the new registration effort.

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