Bloomberg’s campaign staff grows to 800

Michael Bloomberg has hired more than 800 staffers since launching his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in November, according to an aide to the former New York City mayor. 

Most of those staffers — more than 500 — are spread across 30 states, including the 14 Super Tuesday states that Bloomberg is counting on to propel his presidential campaign. Roughly 300 more are based at the campaign’s New York City headquarters, the aide said.

Bloomberg, who only entered the presidential race in November, has quickly shot to the top of the Democratic primary field in spending and staffing. Unlike his rivals for the party’s nomination, he’s not competing in the four early primary and caucus states, opting instead to invest in states that hold their primaries in March.

He’s also self-funding his campaign.

The heavy staffing investments give Bloomberg the largest organization in the Democratic field outside the four early primary or caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. 

While other candidates, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Vice President Joe Biden, have expanded their operations beyond the early states, they remain far behind Bloomberg in total numbers. 

The former New York City mayor has also spent heavily on advertising. He reserved more than $120 million in television ads between his campaign launch in November and the end of the year and has already outspent his Democratic rivals on digital advertising.

Still, Bloomberg is likely to face a difficult path to the nomination. No candidate in recent history has successfully skipped the early primaries and caucuses. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani tried a similar strategy in 2008, only to end his campaign before the end of January.

And at the same time, Bloomberg has faced criticism from many in the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, who have accused him of seeking to buy the nomination by spending millions of dollars of his personal fortune on his campaign. 

Bloomberg’s decision to fund his own campaign also means that he’s unable to qualify for the presidential primary debates under the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) current rules, which require candidates to meet polling minimums and raise money from a certain amount of donors.

Still, his rapid staffing ramp-up means that he will have a presence in many states long before many of his rivals, which he hopes gives him an opportunity to make an early impression with voters.