Mike Bloomberg spent $826,000 on Facebook ads on Saturday, the biggest single-day total of any 2020 candidate

Visits: 1

Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg waits by his tour bus ahead of adressing his supporters at Central Machine Works in Austin, Texas on January 11, 2020.

Mark Felix | AFP | Getty Images

Mike Bloomberg spent more than $825,000 on Facebook ads on Saturday, well more than any other 2020 presidential candidate spent in a single day on the social media platform, according to data from Facebook.

The Bloomberg total also dwarfs what several top-tier candidates have spent on Facebook ads over the course of several days.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg spent about $652,000 on Facebook ads in 30 days. In the same time frame, former Vice President Joe Biden spent a little more than $385,000 on Facebook ads.

Bloomberg, whose net worth is estimated to be around $55 billion, in the last 30 days has become the top spender on Facebook ads, beating out fellow billionaire and candidate Tom Steyer, who at one point was the top Democratic Facebook ads spender.

Bloomberg is in fifth place among Democratic contenders, behind Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and Buttigieg, according to a national polling average compiled by RealClearPolitics. Steyer is in the ninth spot.

President Donald Trump, who is reportedly concerned about how much Bloomberg is spending on the campaign, spent a little over $90,000 on Facebook ads on Saturday, a little more than 10% of Bloomberg’s amount on the same day.

The White House declined to comment. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bloomberg responded to two tweets from Trump himself on his spending.

Trump leads the 2020 Facebook ad spend, with an outlay of $20.3 million since January 2019. Steyer follows with $18.3 million. Bloomberg, the last major candidate to enter the presidential race, quickly rose up to third place with $8.53 million.

The timing of Bloomberg’s large spend corresponds with a nationwide kickoff on Saturday with more than 150 events held by his campaign in more than two dozen states. The campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC asking if the timing of the large ad buy was deliberately coordinated with the kickoff.

Bloomberg emerged as a financial powerhouse for his campaign just a week after declaring a run for president, spending more than $160 million on TV ads alone since the announcement of his 2020 bid.

Support for Bloomberg has been rising in national polls. He has 5.8% of support, according to the latest average from RealClearPolitics.

Democratic heavyweights Sanders and Warren have targeted Bloomberg, saying the billionaire has the means to buy his way into the election. The two senators, who’ve based their campaigns on decreasing income inequality, have been touting small-dollar donations as the chief way to support their 2020 bids.

The former New York City mayor has not qualified for the first Democratic debate of the year, which will take place on Tuesday, but will appear on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” immediately after the event.

Read More Go To Source