The tributes line up under the blinding lights. They scan each other up and down, evaluating the competition. The cannons fire and the bloodbath begins.

No, it’s not The Hunger Games but the 2020 Democratic Debate!

While this year’s debates have resembled the well known dystopian series of novels, with each candidate out for blood, our country is no closer to having a single victor. 

For most of America, the debates have been the first opportunity to get to know the candidates outside of their campaign television ads and catchy slogans. Much like the 2016 presidential debate, which featured Trump’s infamous campaign, viewers now have their eyes on one controversial man whose money-laden campaign has occupied front-page headlines.

Mike Bloomberg is the former mayor of New York City. Sitting on a massive net worth of 64 billion dollars, he is quite literally giving Trump a run for his money. Like Trump, Bloomberg is running on his experience as a businessman and CEO of his own company. 

Yet past scandals, including racial and sexist remarks, have followed Bloomberg to the podium in the same way they followed Trump. At this time four years ago, Trump’s controversial campaign pulled a record 77,000 total people to the early voting booths, a round of voting that isn’t typically very impactful. It is assumed that Bloomberg is causing the same kind of stir in voters this year, as 80,000 people already cast their votes by Thursday, the 20th.

Bloomberg made the first debate earlier this month an interesting one for the viewers. And not but 20 minutes in, it became obvious that an alliance was forming among the other candidates. The ladies of the debate, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar, were quick to attack Bloomberg for his former remarks concerning certain female employees for his company, Bloomberg L.P.  Warren was especially interested in talking about the nondisclosure agreements that Bloomberg signed with an unknown number of women. Bloomberg insisted the agreements with these women are exactly that and dismissed any accusations of sexism. Last Friday, however, he released three women from their NDAs, and his company announced that they would no longer use NDAs “to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct going forward.”

“Maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” he said.

A front runner in the debate, Bernie Sanders, presented another obstacle that Mike had to combat quite fiercely. Sanders, a far-left Democratic Socialist, threw a wrench into the debate that foiled Bloomberg, whose stance is far more moderate. In fact, Bloomberg was actually a Republican when he ran for mayor in New York City.  Sanders called out this fact, outwardly comparing him to Trump.  In addition, Sanders was adamant in his attack over Bloomberg’s “Stop and Frisk” policy. From 2004 to 2012, during Bloomberg’s term as mayor, the NYPD was allowed to stop, question, and frisk suspicious parties for weapons. The policy led to a number of issues, as the majority of the suspects were young adult minorities. Pete Buttigieg agreed with Sanders, saying, “Lets put someone in that’s actually a Democrat.”

Political analysts and journalists saw these attacks coming for Bloomberg before the debate even started.

Analyst Michael Steele, during the debate pre-show, warned the candidates to refrain from going after Bloomberg. He said, “I can’t help but fall back to 2016, where the Bushes and the other moderates on the stage focused more on each other than the guy standing there, throwing bromides and not really answering the questions.”

Steele made clear that ganging up on Bloomberg actually makes Sanders and the other candidates look weak and draws attention away from Bloomberg’s answers. 

Much like Trump did four years ago, Mike Bloomberg is stirring up the 2020 presidential campaign. Whether it’s his money, opportunism, or controversial accusations, he has made quite a name for himself. No one could imagine a radical Republican like Trump actually becoming president, and a lot of voters are thinking the same thing about Bloomberg.

The next debate is tonight, and Bloomberg will have the chance to fight back. Our country will be eager to see if another billionaire is equipped to run our country.