Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who emphasized he is not endorsing at this stage of the contest, said he admires that Bloomberg is “committed to using his resources” to elect a Democratic president and said his work in Baltimore to curb gun violence and invest in Johns Hopkins University gives him credibility in Maryland.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described Bloomberg as a “force for good on the issue of gun violence.”
“There’s part of me that likes the fact that an anti-gun-violence champion is running for president,” Murphy said, adding, “There’s part of me that doesn’t want him to lose the focus that he had on the movement.”
Bloomberg has also opened up his wallet in the battle for the Senate, which senators surely haven’t forgotten.
In 2018, he donated $20 million to the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic leadership-backed group trying to take back the Senate. He’s also donated to individual Senate Democrats over the years, including Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire — both of whom are up this year — as well as several Republican senators including John McCain of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Susan Collins of Maine, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Sen. Joe Manchin — a moderate from West Virginia who has said he is open to endorsing Trump — said the former New York mayor „looks like a responsible adult“ but didn’t say whether he would back him.
Bloomberg’s candidacy has stirred up opposition on the left. Nominating a billionaire former Republican who spent years defending stop-and-frisk policing policies will not sit well with progressives.
But for now, most Senate Democrats agree that his ads, particularly on health care, are helpful to their cause.
“Trump gets all this free publicity,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “On health care, every Democrat wants universal coverage but at different speeds. Trump wants to basically take it away. … It’s whose side are you on — and Bloomberg’s ads are doing that. I do like that part about him.”
When asked whether he has any qualms about Bloomberg’s status as a billionaire buying air time, Brown said: “I’m glad he’s doing the ads, let’s leave it at that.”
Source: politico.com
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