Michael Bloomberg just officially entered nomination contest and is already second in media spending

Michael Bloomberg has officially entered the Democratic presidential nomination contest.  VOA News reports in Billionaire Investor Joins Democratic Presidential Race.

The crowded field of U.S. Democratic presidential hopefuls added a new name this week, when former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially joined the race on Sunday. VOA's Ardita Dunellari reports the 77-year old billionaire investor and philanthropist has name recognition and millions of dollars of his own fortune for campaign spending.

As Larry Sabato mentioned, Bloomberg has already spent $37 million on media buys within days of declaring his candidacy.  That figure places him second in campaign media spending behind only Tom Steyer.  CBS News pointed that out in Billionaires lead presidential candidates in ad spending.

2020 Democratic presidential candidates Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, both multi-billionaires, are leading all of their competitors in ad spending with a combined total of nearly $90 million. President Trump is in third place for his reelection bid. Axios media reporter Sara Fischer joined CBSN to break down the data and explain what it means for the race to the White House.

Steyer was able to convince enough people in Iowa and New Hampshire to contribute money and pick him in polls to make the October and November Democratic debates, so maybe Bloomberg can raise his poll numbers up high enough to qualify.  However, as I noted in SNL has fun with impeachment hearings and Democratic debate, he's not taking any donations, which means he won't qualify for debates as long as that's a criterion.  Let's see how well that works out for him.