For US presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg, Tuesday debut was anything but super

Michael Bloomberg has spent nearly three quarters of a billion dollars on his campaign since entering the race in November. PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON/MIAMI (AFP/REUTERS) - Mr Michael Bloomberg crashed and burned in his presidential primary debut on Super Tuesday, failing to win any states in a dismal performance that left the former New York mayor facing questions about his future in the Democratic race.

It was an ugly night for the billionaire US media tycoon who had entered the nomination contest last November with high hopes and deep pockets, investing a record US$500 million (S$692 million) from his personal fortune into advertising before his name even appeared on a single ballot.

As the candidate who claims he is best positioned to defeat US President Donald Trump in November licked his wounds, his campaign signalled to NBC News that Bloomberg will reassess his candidacy on Wednesday (March 4) when a fuller data picture comes in.

"As our campaign manager said before the polls closed tonight, any campaign would reassess after tonight, after next week, after any time there was a vote," said Mr Bloomberg national press secretary Julie Wood.

Another campaign official said it was inaccurate to suggest Mr Bloomberg's presidential run could end on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day Mr Bloomberg bristled when asked whether a third place was good enough for him - indicating he considered himself a top three player along with centrist Joe Biden and leftist Bernie Sanders.

But results ultimately showed the billionaire businessman gaining little traction with voters and facing a crushing fourth place finish in no fewer than five of the 14 Super Tuesday states, including key battleground Virginia, where he came up empty after reportedly sinking US$18 million into advertising and ground operations in the state, dozens of times more than winner Mr Biden invested there.

Novel strategy

Mr Bloomberg adopted a novel strategy for his White House bid, opting out of the first four nominating contests and hoping his costly ad blitz would generate a momentum-building series of wins on Super Tuesday.

Bloomberg's strategy has been unconventional. He challenged the party custom of campaigning heavily in the four early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, opting instead for a Super Tuesday splash.

"While my fellow candidates spent a whole year focusing on the first four states, I was out campaigning against Donald Trump in the states where the election will actually be decided" such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, he said.

But the current Democratic race is a battle for a majority of the delegates who pick the nominee at the party's national convention in July.

Mr Bloomberg was unlikely to win any states, although he will likely pick up some of the 1,357 pledged delegates available. He was projected to win in American Samoa, a US territory that awards a total of six delegates. He also picked up some delegates in Colorado, and early results showed him No. 2 in delegate-rich California.

"As the results come in, here's what is clear: No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one thought was possible," Mr Bloomberg told supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday evening.

"In just three months, we've gone from 1 per cent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president."

After entering the race in November, more than six months after his main competitors, Mr Bloomberg spent nearly three quarters of a billion dollars on his campaign, much of it on ads arguing that he could defeat Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.

He hired thousands of staffers and mounted a vigorous national tour focused on Super Tuesday states, and began to rise in national opinion polls.

But Mr Bloomberg was dogged by criticism of his past support as mayor of "stop and frisk", a policy that encouraged police to stop and search pedestrians and ensnared disproportionate numbers of blacks and Latinos. He was also slammed in two Democratic debates for past sexist remarks.

Mr Joe Biden's decisive win in South Carolina last Saturday and the subsequent endorsements of former rivals Mr Pete Buttigieg and Ms Amy Klobuchar led to a surge in support for the former vice-president, who was projected to win at least eight states on Tuesday.

Eyeing convention leverage

Mr Bloomberg said on Tuesday night he had done well among "swing voters" and "proved we can win the voters who will decide the general election", but it was unclear which voters he was citing.

Exit polls showed Mr Biden beating Mr Bloomberg comfortably among conservative voters and independents. In Texas, for instance, where Mr Bloomberg spent a large amount on ads, Mr Biden was leading him with voters who do not identify with either major political party by 24 per cent to 12 per cent and among voters describing themselves as "conservative" by 25 to 17 per cent.

Half of voters in three states - Texas, North Carolina and Tennessee - said it was "unfair" for candidates to spend unlimited amounts of their own money on their campaigns.

In Virginia, 56 per cent of voters had an unfavourable view of Mr Bloomberg, with 40 per cent favourable, the exit polls showed.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Bloomberg said he was "in it to win it", but was already talking about accumulating delegates, rather than winning states, with an eye to having leverage at a possible contested convention.

"I don't think that I can win any other way, but a contested convention is a democratic process," Mr Bloomberg told reporters.

Inescapably, he will face mounting pressure to bow out and clear the way for fellow moderate Biden, whose Tuesday showing made him the definitive challenger to Sanders in the nomination race.

Mr Trump has relentlessly mocked his fellow septuagenarian New York billionaire, and Tuesday was no different.

"The biggest loser tonight, by far, is Mini Mike Bloomberg," the president tweeted, saying his hundreds of millions of dollars in ads went "down the drain".

"He got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation."

Bryce Grahm, a 22-year-old supporter at Mr Bloomberg's Florida event, however, called him "the best candidate to get the job done, to economically shift this country, to also win against Trump."

Mr Bloomberg's chances were "slim", Mr Grahm acknowledged. "But it's not looking that bad. He is showing on the board."

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