SAN FRANCISCO - Billionaire-bashing is a feature of the U.S. Democratic party’s contest to find a challenger for Donald Trump in November’s presidential elections. The $380 million spent on advertising by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer is winning over some critics, as measured by polls. But the small-donor approach of rival Senator Bernie Sanders will be more potent in the end.

Bloomberg announced his White House bid just two months ago. With a net worth of about $60 billion, as estimated by Forbes, he has already paid out nearly $250 million for ads, according to Advertising Analytics figures as of Tuesday.

Steyer, who launched his run last July and is worth around $1.6 billion per Forbes, has racked up over $130 million. The next biggest spender at just over $50 million is Trump, who began ramping up his re-election efforts a year ago.

The two Democratic billionaires, who are funding their own campaigns, have spent more than twice as much as all the other Democrats and Trump combined. That has helped Bloomberg become the top-polling Democratic candidate against Trump in the swing state of Michigan, according to a recent local survey.

A Fox News poll earlier this month put Steyer in a surprising second place in the early voting state of South Carolina, where he has advertised heavily. That’s ahead of Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who have both accused the billionaires of trying to buy the election.

Self-described socialist Sanders has raised the most money among the non-billionaire Democrats at $74 million, and 60% of those donations were less than $200, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He is slightly behind former Vice President Joe Biden in Iowa, according to the polling average calculated by Real Clear Politics – a key race because the state will host the first so-called caucus to choose a Democratic candidate on Feb. 3. Nationally, Sanders is running second to Biden.

The Vermont senator’s mass fundraising prowess, along with his popularity, will allow him to continue his fight to the Democratic convention in July, even if Bloomberg and Steyer’s resources make the race the most expensive ever. Whether or not he wins, that will give Sanders influence the billionaires can only dream of.

CONTEXT NEWS

- U.S. presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg has spent $248 million on political ads, Advertising Analytics said on Jan. 21. Fellow billionaire and hedge fund founder Tom Steyer is in second place with $134 million in expenditures.

- Bloomberg is the top Democratic candidate in Michigan in a poll released on Jan. 15 by local firm EPIC-MRA. He has a seven-point lead against President Donald Trump. Separately in a Morning Consult poll released on Jan. 14, Steyer came in third place in a survey of voters in the four states holding early primaries and caucuses: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

(Editing by Richard Beales and Amanda Gomez)

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