There will be no battle of the New York billionaires in the 2016 presidential race.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday that he would not run for president as an independent candidate, a move that would have roiled this year’s already extraordinarily unpredictable presidential campaign.
Mr. Bloomberg’s announcement came on the eve of Tuesday’s Michigan primary, the first nominating contest in a big industrial State. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are both favoured in a primary that should offer clues about how the candidates will fare in important Midwest contests to come.
Also on tap for Tuesday are primaries for both parties in Mississippi, and Republican contests in Idaho and Hawaii.
Mr. Bloomberg, who had spent months mulling a third-party run, made his decision official through an editorial posted by the Bloomberg View, writing that he believes his candidacy would likely lead to the election of Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.
“That is not a risk I can take in good conscience,” the 74-year-old billionaire wrote.
Mr. Bloomberg was blistering in his critique of Mr. Trump, currently the Republican front-runner, saying the billionaire real estate mogul has run “the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people’s prejudices and fears.”
“We cannot ‘make America great again’ by turning our backs on the values that made us the world’s greatest nation in the first place,” he wrote.
“I love our country too much to play a role in electing a candidate who would weaken our unity and darken our future — and so I will not enter the race for president of the United States.”
