Michael Bloomberg, the former Democratic presidential aspirant, is helping to pay for a last-minute $15 million ad campaign for former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Ohio and Texas, The New York Times reports.
A former mayor of New York City, Bloomberg will capitalize on his independent expenditure-only political action committee - or Super PAC - Independence USA, to broadcast TV ads across the two Republican-leaning states where U.S. President Donald Trump's poll figures are lagging, a political adviser said.
Top aide Howard Wolfson said Bloomberg conducted a survey to gauge the president's potential weakness and decided to pick the two states for the late advertising push.
The television ads will mainly focus on the global health crisis and the Texas leg of the ad campaign will include a Spanish-language element while in Ohio, Independence USA plans to air ads about the country's economy and Biden's "build back better" battle cry.
The investment in Ohio and Texas comes at a time when the former U.S. vice president is showing massive strength among college-educated white voters and seniors who are more than 65 years of age, demographics that remained consistent toward the Republicans for years.
"We believe that Florida will go down the wire, and we're looking for more opportunities to expand the map," Wolfson told The New York Times. Ohio and Texas, he said, "present the best opportunities to do that, in our view."
Bloomberg has already disclosed he will shell out $100 million to bankroll Biden's campaign in Florida. He is also looking to increase the amount of his television ad slots in the state in the coming days.
Texas has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976, and while it is still a technically Republican territory, Biden has narrowly taken the edge in multiple polls in the last few months.
Ohio and Texas have 56 Electoral College votes between the two states. While Biden does not depend on either state in his plans to secure 270 EC votes, Trump has not established a clear route to victory that doesn't include winning both states.
