Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is warning Democrats ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
Bloomberg, a former Republican who backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, said Democrats are “headed for a wipeout in November, up and down the ballot,” unless an “immediate course correction” is implemented.
Voters in the liberal city overwhelmingly chose to remove Alison Collins, Gabriela Lopez, and Faauuga Moliga from the board because of the board’s repeatedly blocking efforts to reopen schools, even after the bulk of evidence signaled schools could safely open amid the COVID-19 pandemic and that virtual learning is inferior to in-person classes.
“The school board members failed to show any urgency in reopening schools even when it was clear that doing so was safe—and that remote classes were leaving students further and further behind,” Bloomberg said.
The members, who took time to vote on renaming schools while students remained unable to learn in person, “seemed more concerned with political correctness than educating children,” he added, echoing San Francisco residents who backed the recall.
Democrats need to speak out about school closures and ways to improve learning for all children, especially the worst-off, Bloomberg said, positing that Democrat Eric Adams won the New York City mayoral election in part because he addressed concerns about how education was handled by his predecessor.
“Swing voters will decide the 2022 midterm elections, and right now, polls show they are swinging away from Democrats. The earthquake that shook San Francisco needs to shake up our party, before voters do it themselves in November,” Bloomberg said.
A number of Democrats and independents who lean left have expressed frustration with school closures and other heavy-handed policies, particularly in recent months.
Republican-led states were more likely to reopen schools after virtually every state closed them in early 2020. Republican governors were also more likely to favor fewer restrictions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), on the other hand, has said she thinks Democrats will do better than expected even as she acknowledged the trend of the president’s party losing congressional seats in the midterms, including Republicans losing seats in 2018 while former President Donald Trump was in office.
“We won 40 seats in ‘18, 31 in Trump districts. In this year with Trump on the ballot, we lost a third of those Trump seats. However, the people who survived in those Trump seats with Trump on the ballot are in very good shape,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We have decided to win and that’s what we will do.”
