Bloomberg campaign lobbied Yang for endorsement, possible VP offer: report

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s campaign has reached out to former Democratic presidential primary candidate Andrew Yang seeking an endorsement, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported that aides from Bloomberg’s camp reached out to the entrepreneur to gauge his interest in working to help Bloomberg win the Democratic nomination.

Another source told the Journal that Yang, who dropped out of the primary race last month, was noncommittal in his response.

While the Journal’s sources said that the idea of Yang being Bloomberg’s running mate was thrown around, a separate senior Bloomberg aide said that Yang was never seriously being considered.

A senior Bloomberg campaign aide tells us Andrew Yang was not and is not being seriously considered as a running mate for Mike Bloomberg

— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) February 27, 2020

Bloomberg, a latecomer to the race, hasn’t been on any of the ballots in the first three primaries and won’t be on the ballot for South Carolina either. But, he’s spent almost a half-billion dollars on advertisements and campaign efforts in all 14 of the crucial Super Tuesday states.

Yang gained a solid online following and was able to outlast several better-known candidates such as Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), but ultimately wasn’t able to make a real breakthrough in the polls.

Yang recently joined CNN as a contributor where he helps provide analysis of the race. 

The Hill has reached out to Bloomberg’s campaign for comment.