Draft Bloomberg movement
The Draft Bloomberg movement is a political draft movement in the United States that launched in 2007
as an effort to convince New York City Mayor of [New York City|Mayor] Michael Bloomberg to run for President of the United States as an independent candidate in the 2008 [United States presidential election|2008 election]. The movement ended for that election cycle on February 28, 2008, when Bloomberg formally announced that he would not run for president.
The movement relaunched in late 2010 as an effort to persuade Bloomberg to make a presidential bid and/or lead in the formation of a viable third party in 2012. Eight years later, he eventually Michael [Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign|entered] the 2020 [Democratic Party presidential primaries] and lost, after winning only the territory of American Samoa, while missing the 15% threshold for proportional delegates in several states.
Support from Independent Greens of Virginia
In January 2008, the Greens of Virginia">Green Party (United States)">Greens of Virginia launched the first state petition drive in the nation to put Michael Bloomberg on the ballot for president.The party collected and submitted more than the minimum number of required petition signatures with Bloomberg's name to the Virginia State Board of Elections, prior to the Board's deadline, to put the party on the ballot for president in Virginia. Despite these efforts, Bloomberg did not appear on the Virginia ballot in the 2008 election as a presidential candidate because, one day prior to the State's deadline for ballot submissions, he requested that the party remove his name.
Unity08 splinter group
There had been speculation of drafting Bloomberg to run as a presidential candidate on the Unity08 ticket.On January 10, 2008, the organization released a statement announcing that two of its co-founders, Doug Bailey and Gerald Rafshoon, were leaving Unity08 and launching a national draft movement to entice Bloomberg to run as an independent candidate.