Poll boost: Bloomberg qualifies for debate

Washington, February 18

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday qualified for this week’s Democratic presidential debate in Nevada, putting him on the same stage as his rivals for the first time in the race for the party’s nomination.

The debate on Wednesday will be the ninth in the contest for who will challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 3 election. A late entry to the race, Bloomberg, 78, has risen in public opinion polls as he pours money from his estimated $60 billion personal fortune into a national campaign, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on television ads.

When he takes the stage on Wednesday, he is likely to be challenged directly by rivals over his use as mayor of a policing policy widely seen as discriminatory and of supposed sexist practices at his company. “There’s a lot to talk about with Michael Bloomberg,” former vice president and candidate for the nomination Joe Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Bloomberg had support from 19% of the people surveyed in a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. With that result, he met the Democratic Party’s requirements for debate qualification by receiving double-digit support in four national polls recognised by the party.

While Bloomberg is not competing in the first four nomination contests – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina – he hopes to start winning delegates beginning on Super Tuesday on March 3, when 14 states will vote. At least five other candidates have qualified for Wednesday’s debate ahead of Nevada’s February 22 caucuses: Biden, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg. — Reuters