Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is mulling a run for president in the 2020 election, a source close to him told CBS2. Though he considered running as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, Bloomberg has stayed mostly out the political arena since his third term as the city’s 108th mayor ended in 2013.
If Bloomberg does run in the 2020 election, the now-76-year-old will not only be the oldest person to seek the White House, he will also be the richest, with a net worth estimated to be $50.9 billion as of this month, according to Forbes.
When President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017, he was the oldest person to occupy the Oval Office at 70 years, seven months and seven days old, breaking a record set exactly 36 years prior by Ronald Reagan, who was just shy of 70.
Sources told CBS2 that Bloomberg would run as a Democrat in the 2020 election. In 2001, he switched his party from Democrat to run as a Republican in his first mayoral race. He won a second term in 2005 and switched to independent in 2007 and ran as an independent on the Republican ballot line for his third term in 2009.
Bloomberg is the second high-profile New Yorker rumored to be considering a run for president in the 2020 election: Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been on many pundits’ list of potential candidates almost immediately after the 2016 election, though he has claimed to be focusing on his current race for a third term in Albany.
And of course, native New Yorker Trump is already gearing up for a re-election campaign come 2020. In addition to 2016, when he eventually backed Hillary Clinton, Bloomberg also considered running for president in 2008 and 2012.
