Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s campaign is revising its strategy after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came out of this weekend's Nevada caucuses as the clear Democratic frontrunner.
Bloomberg 2020 States Director Dan Kanninen said Monday that Sanders’ policies will appeal to too narrow a base of voters to beat President Donald Trump in November.
"If we nominate Sen. Sanders to the top of the Democratic ticket, it will not bring the kind of broad coalition of voters we need to the polls, and critical House seats could flip to Republican, risking our ability to keep the House, and eliminate any chance of flipping the Senate," Kanninen said.
Bloomberg was the top choice among Oklahoma Democratic primary voters in a poll taken before Nevada. Bloomberg debated there, but his first appearance on a ballot will be the March 3 primaries in Oklahoma and 13 other states after choosing to skip early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and South Carolina.
Bloomberg 2020 Oklahoma State Director Sarah Baker said their ground game in Oklahoma includes three field offices and 23 staffers from the state who have held dozens of events over the past six weeks.
"No presidential campaign has had this level of organization in Oklahoma in decades, especially not during a primary, on either side of the aisle. Oklahoma often gets written off as a deeply red state, but we still get ignored by both parties," Baker said.
While gun regulations can be a touchy subject in Oklahoma, the campaign will push them over the next two weeks as one of Bloomberg’s featured policy proposals. Baker said Bloomberg is proposing things that have broad public support, like more background checks.
"This is about responsible gun ownership and keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals and particularly … closing the loopholes on allowing domestic abusers to have firearms," Baker said.
Bloomberg has already visited Oklahoma multiple times during this election cycle, including to announce his Greenwood Initiative, a broad plan to address racial wealth inequality.
