Bloomberg Revisits Independent Presidential Bid

Another billionaire might want to shake up the 2016 race. The New York Times reports that former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is looking at a potential 2016 run as an independent. Bloomberg has flirted with the idea in the past, but has always concluded he couldn't win. He sees a potential opening in a 2016 race that could see a scandal-weakened Hillary Clinton or a far-left idealogue against a far-right idealogue or a political novice with high unfavorable ratings.

If you'd like to play around with this idea, we've got a version of our electoral map that allows for third party or independents to be included.

How could Bloomberg win? Let's say he's able to win a few states and that nobody in the race reaches 270 electoral votes. In that case, the U.S. House would pick the president, with one vote per state. Republicans control the majority of state delegations so a Sanders or Clinton choice would be doubtful. Perhaps a centrist independent would be more appealing than Trump to at least some Republican states who might then join up with some Democratic delegations to give the presidency to Bloomberg. An absolute majority of the states (26) must agree on the winner.