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A new Morning Consult poll found that 4% of 2,225 registered Democratic voters said billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg would be their first choice to take on President Trump next year.
Why it matters: The poll places the former mayor of New York City above 10 candidates currently in the race, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
- Bloomberg has not officially confirmed his candidacy, but he has filed paperwork to enter the 2020 presidential primary in Alabama, which had a deadline to file for its ballot last Friday.
Details: The poll found that Bloomberg fares as well as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden when matched up against Trump in a hypothetical election. 43% of voters nationwide said they would vote for Bloomberg, while 37% said they would vote for Trump.
The big picture: "If he were to run, Bloomberg would enter the 2020 Democratic contest with higher name recognition among the party’s electorate than 11 current contenders, including fellow billionaire Tom Steyer of California," per Morning Consult.
- Bloomberg plans to skip early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina to focus on making up ground in Super Tuesday states, according to AP.
- Sources close to the former New York mayor told Axios that "Mike will spend whatever it takes to defeat Donald Trump. The nation is about to see a very different campaign than we’ve ever seen before."
Yes, but: Source also told Axios that last week's announcement was partly a trial balloon to gauge interest and preserve the former mayor's options — but his own very extensive polling remains far from convincing.
- Polling being studied by Bloomberg shows big, perhaps insurmountable hurdles, particularly if Joe Biden stays in.
Methodology: The poll was conducted on Nov. 8 and surveyed 2,225 registered voters who indicated they may vote in the Democratic primary or caucus in their state and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
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