Bloomberg gives $2 million to grassroots organization Swing Left
Billionaire and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg will be making another sizable donation to a political organization Tuesday, CBS News first reports. Bloomberg is donating $2 million to Swing Left, a national grassroots organization consisting of over a million volunteers and donors with the goal of flipping seats from red to blue.
"I'm glad to help Swing Left continue the work of organizing voters in those states." Bloomberg said in a statement. "When supporters wanted to donate to our campaign, I suggested they instead give to groups like Swing Left — because whoever the nominee is, Swing Left can help us achieve our goal: defeating Donald Trump, electing Democrats up and down the ballot, and getting our country back on track."
Since he ended his presidential campaign, Bloomberg has announced several donations through Bloomberg Philanthropies to organizations that range from registering people of color to vote to combatting the coronavirus. Last week his charitable organization announced it would spend $40 million to fight the spread of coronavirus.
This election cycle Swing Left Executive Director and Co-Chair Ethan Todras-Whitehill welcomed the cash infusion, saying that defeating President Trump will require "everyone's support." In 2020, the organization plans to focus its energy and efforts on the grassroots of 12 "Super States:" Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
"There's no time to wait, which is why we're organizing now to support eventual Democratic candidates in their general election battles." Todras-Whitehill said in a statement. "This donation and others like it will help Swing Left continue to fulfill our mission of making it as easy as possible for everyone to have maximum impact on the most important elections up and down the ballot — from wherever you live."
Bloomberg has already spent over $500 million during this campaign cycle, and this is not the first election cycle he's investing heavily in. Bloomberg spent millions of his personal fortune in the 2018 midterm elections. While he ran for president, Bloomberg would often say that he helped flipped 21 House seats that proved to be consequential in helping Nancy Pelosi regain control of the House and rise to speaker.
