Michael Bloomberg Gets Low Double-Digits In Hypothetical Independent Presidential Run

Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump

Last week, the New York Times reported that former 3-term mayor of New York City and uber-billionaire Michael Bloomberg is considering a possible independent run for the White House.

(Donald Trump likes to say he's really rich. Donald, compared to you, Bloomberg is REALLY, REALLY rich).

Having been a Democrat turned Republican turned Independent, Bloomberg believes he could pull voters from both major political parties. Plus, being worth more than $30 Billion, he could easily drop $1 Billion of his own money without blinking.

But a Morning Consult poll shows the former mayor would not fare well in a three-way race:

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a ways to go if he wants to win as a third-party candidate for president. According to a new Morning Consult poll, Bloomberg, an independent, gets just 12 percent of voters when competing in a three-way race with the Democratic underdog candidate Bernie Sanders and Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Sanders, a democratic socialist who has recently tightened the race with front-runner Hillary Clinton, gets 35 percent of voters. Trump gets a nearly identical 34 percent.

Bloomberg is considering entering the race as an independent, third-party candidate if Trump and Sanders are the eventual nominees, the New York Times reported on Saturday, because he could compete with two candidates on the fringes of their parties.

But Bloomberg’s poll numbers barely change when he is competing against Sanders instead of Clinton. In a Morning Consult poll released last week, Bloomberg got 13 percent of voters, Clinton got 36 percent and Trump got 37 percent.

Bolding is mine.

The point being: why spend a billion dollars to come in a distant third?