Swing-district California congressman endorses Bloomberg for president

Rep. Harley Rouda of California endorsed Michael Bloomberg on Friday, becoming the third member of Congress — and the first from the Super Tuesday state of California — to back the former New York City mayor’s unconventional campaign for the presidency.

Rouda, a freshman Democrat who represents a battleground House seat in suburban Los Angeles, joins Reps. Max Rose of New York and Stephanie Murphy of Florida in supporting Bloomberg’s 2020 White House bid, which he launched last November.

In an interview, Rouda, who like Bloomberg is a former Republican, said he was most aligned with the multi-billionaire’s worldview compared to the other candidates in the race.

“He has been a fiscal conservative and a social progressive, which is where I believe most Americans are,” Rouda said. “That’s exactly what I ran on, that most Americans are between the 20-yard lines.”

In the 2018 midterm election, a PAC funded and controlled by Bloomberg spent more than $4 million helping Rouda defeat longtime GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in what was one of the year’s most closely watched races.

Last cycle, Bloomberg spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads helping House Democratic candidates, a massive financial push that Republicans credit with helping Democrats take control of the lower chamber.

Rouda said Bloomberg’s spending on his race didn’t factor into his decision.

“The overall support he has provided issues and campaign that are important to most Americans goes into the calculus,” Rouda said. “But I have never talked or met Michael Bloomberg until a number of months after I was elected.”

“Using today’s vernacular, there was no quid pro quo,” he added.

Democratic members of Congress have been conspicuously slow to endorse presidential contenders in the primary, with many saying they are nervous about the leading candidates or the possibility of alienating their own constituents.

For his part, Bloomberg has picked up the support of a handful of mayors as he tries to win the Democratic nomination in an unorthodox and unprecedented fashion. He is skipping the first four contests in February, focusing instead on the 14 states, including California, that vote March 3 as the springboard for his campaign. Roughly 40 percent of all pledged delegates are up for grabs that day, known as Super Tuesday.

California has the most delegates to offer of any state at 416. Delegates are allocated at the statewide and congressional district level in the Democratic primary.

Bloomberg is spending more than $200 million on ads nationally and building a massive campaign operation in states that vote in March and April, hoping that February’s results leave the field without a clear frontrunner and provide him with an opening to win broad support from voters.

“He’s got an uphill climb, but so does every candidate,” Rouda said. “There is no clear frontrunner with an easy path to the nomination at this time.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated how many members of Congress have endorsed Bloomberg. He has received three endorsements from lawmakers.

This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 5:30 AM.