“These endless legal challenges that define elections in New York are a joke in this country, and they are the reason why it is so expensive, or one of the reasons, it's so expensive to run here and why so many people decide not to run.”

American businessman and politician

Michael Bloomberg is an American businessman and politician. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., and served as chief executive twice, first from 1981 to 2001 and then from 2014 to 2023. He was mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. Bloomberg moved through several political affiliations over time. He left the Democratic Party in 2001 to run for mayor as a Republican, later became an independent in 2007, and returned to the Democrats in 2018 before seeking the party’s 2020 presidential nomination. He is also described as a centibillionaire, with his wealth listed at $109.4 billion as of March 2026.