Michael Bloomberg to fund late advertising push for Joe Biden in Texas and Ohio

US media tycoon Michael Bloomberg is planning to spend around $15 million on last-minute television advertising in Texas and Ohio to help Democratic candidate Joe Biden defeat President Donald Trump, a Bloomberg spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The statewide ads in the two red states, which have been swaying away from the Republicans, will run from Wednesday through Election Day next Tuesday, the New York Times reported.

The former New York City mayor, who lost out to Biden in a crowded field for the Democratic nomination, had previously promised to spend up to $100 million to support Biden in Florida.

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As per the New York Times report, Bloomberg asked his team to analyse polling data from multiple states and figure out if the President had specific weaknesses in any of the states.

“We believe that Florida will go down to the wire, and we were looking for additional opportunities to expand the map,” Bloomberg aide Howard Wolfson told the Times. “Texas and Ohio present the best opportunities to do that, in our view.”

The CEO of Bloomberg is also set to increase pro-Biden advertising in Florida, strengthening a campaign that began mid-September with daily ads in 10 Florida media markets, the spokesperson said.

While ads in Texas, in English and Spanish, will majorly focus on Trump’s poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ohio ads will focus on the pandemic plus the economy and Biden’s “build back better” theme, the spokesperson said to Times.

Trump won Texas and Ohio in his 2016 election, and holding on to the two states, which have a combined total of 56 Electoral College votes between them, is crucial to his re-election prospects come November 3.