Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.  | Getty Images Bloomberg campaign writes off Biden

TALLAHASSEE — Mike Bloomberg’s campaign said the Democratic presidential race is down to a two-man contest — and Joe Biden isn’t one of the men in the mix. 

The former vice president’s fortunes have plummeted so much since his back-to-back losses in Iowa and New Hampshire that only Bloomberg is polling strongly enough to challenge the Democrats’ front-runner, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Bloomberg states director Dan Kanninen said Tuesday. 


“Mike is quite clearly in a strong second place in this primary and rising rapidly above the rest of the field, which is either stagnant or declining quickly,’’ Kanninen told reporters on a conference call. “ None of the other Democrats beside Mike or Bernie is in a position to amass delegates in a serious way on Super Tuesday.” 

Only one of three people stand to be sworn in as president next January: Bloomberg, Sanders or Republican incumbent President Donald Trump, Kanninen said.  He said it’s “evident” to the Bloomberg campaign, based on public and internal polling, enthusiasm at recent campaign events, and a growing number of endorsements, that the former New York mayor is the only likely challenger to Sanders. 

Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates said it was “a jarring but unsurprising level of arrogance” for Kanninen to suggest that Bloomberg‘s position in the primary campaign is “solid or assured." 

"Mike Bloomberg has not yet endured a single debate.  He has not been on the ballot in early states or won a single delegate to the convention,” Bates said in a written statement. 

Bloomberg’s campaign has spent the past week “weathering headlines about sexual harassment at his company, the racist Stop and Frisk policy he oversaw and advocated for, how he attributed the financial crisis to the end of one of the worst housing discrimination practices, and his regular demeaning of President Barack Obama,” Bates wrote. 

But the Bloomberg message is more than the braggadocio of a billionaire whose campaign already has burned through about $400 million.  It’s also the growing sentiment of Democratic insiders who are increasingly bearish on Biden’s chances. 

“If it’s not already, this is a Bernie-Bloomberg race,” Mark Longabaugh, advisor to former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and a 2016 advisor to Sanders, told POLITICO. 

“I don’t want to count Biden completely out yet, but it’s getting harder and harder to see his path,” Longabaugh said. “ It’s as if Bloomberg couldn’t have scripted this primary better for himself.” 

An advisor to Sanders said his campaign, too, increasingly sees the Democratic primary as a two-candidate contest between Bloomberg and Sanders. 

“Unless Biden somehow turns it around, it’s hard to see how it’s not us against the billionaire,” said the Nevada advisor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the campaign does not want to publicly discuss strategy. 

Bloomberg last year chose not to run, in part because Biden appeared so strong.  But as the Democratic primary wore on and Biden stalled or even declined in polls of early states and the nation, Bloomberg began eyeing the race and decided to enter it late.  He launched his run in the Super Tuesday states that vote March 3, after voters in the first four states have weighed in.  Every other major campaign has competed in at least one of the early states. 

Kanninen said the Biden race had been “muddled” after Iowa’s caucus debacle, in which Biden finished fourth, and the New Hampshire primary, where Biden came in fifth. 

Biden and his surrogates have launched a broad public relations campaign to make the case that he can turn around his fortunes with a second-place finish in Nevada on Saturday, a big win in South Carolina on Feb. 29, and big margins among black voters in Super Tuesday states. 

But Bloomberg’s rise complicates Biden’s math and ultimately could help Sanders if Biden and Bloomberg stay in the race and siphon off moderate votes. 

A poll released Tuesday in Virginia showed Bloomberg locked in a tight race there with both Biden and Sanders.  The Monmouth University Poll of likely Democratic primary votes found 22 percent supporting each Bloomberg and Sanders.  Eighteen percent said they support Biden. 

Bloomberg had a good enough showing in a poll from NPR/Marist to qualify for Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas.  The survey showed Bloomberg rising to second place, behind Sanders and ahead of Biden. 

Florida, once an election firewall for Biden, and its 248 delegates also might be up for grabs in its March 17 primary as state party leaders shift allegiances. 

Scott Kosanovich, Bloomberg’s state director for Florida, said the campaign would have up to 200 people on the ground by the primary.  The campaign opened several state field offices this weekend, with more to follow.  The campaign already is engaged in heavy outreach, texting and calling voters and making door-to-door visits. 

Primary voting has already begun in the state.  As of Tuesday, nearly 225,000 voters — 76,000 of whom are Democrats — had mailed in ballots.