It's Official, Folks: We Have A "Draft Bloomberg" Effort

"Bloomberg Nation is a grassroots movement dedicated to making our nation bloom."

WASHINGTON — “Join the movement,” the opening page of the Bloomberg Nation website proclaims. “Save the nation.”

An effort is launching to urge former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president — one day after Donald Trump, the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, said he could shoot a person on Fifth Avenue in the city and "wouldn't lose any voters."

“Bloomberg Nation is a grassroots movement dedicated to making our nation bloom. We are concerned citizens who believe Mike Bloomberg is uniquely suited to turn around an ailing economy, spur growth and create stability in the world,” the Bloomberg Nation site declares. “It's time for a change. Bloomberg is the man to usher in that change.”

Bloomberg often has toyed with the idea of running for president, and the New York Times — citing anonymous sources — reported on Friday that, once again, he is considering a run. Now, however, at least one person other than Bloomberg is putting his name behind the concept of a Bloomberg campaign because he believes the time is right.

Richie Hecker, a tech entrepreneur who currently is the CEO of Traction + Scale LLC, talked with BuzzFeed News about the effort, saying that he is the group’s spokesperson.

"You have both parties, really, in disarray, and they're rolling out the red carpet" for someone like Bloomberg, Hecker said. "There isn't any candidate who is promoting a track record."

But Bloomberg, he said, is different. “He can actually operate. He runs the largest media company in New York. And he ran the largest city in the world.”

The "About" page for Bloomberg Nation:

Of the effort, a bare-bones website at this point, Hecker said, “This came together, grassroots, in the past couple days ... people involved in different types of organizing and technology.”

Referring to “all of the negative noise being created by one of the other candidates,” Hecker said the group’s aim is “to create positive content” aimed at supporting a Bloomberg run. “The way to win it is to understand the media channels today, and no one is doing that.”

Additionally, he said another aim of Bloomberg Nation is to serve as “a call to action to the tech community at large," which he said can elect the next president "on the basis of the skill set, the connections, and the know-how to get it to happen."

"It doesn't take billions of dollars and campaign ads,” he added.

Although Hecker said the group has “nothing, formally, to do with Bloomberg,” he would not give many details about who’s backing Bloomberg Nation — saying only that it was people involved in the tech industry and civic society efforts.

"A group of concerned citizens," he said, when asked specifically who was behind the effort. "I wish I could give you more information. I'm just a guy building a website."

Following up, Hecker also provided BuzzFeed News with the following statement about the effort:

"BloombergNation is a grassroots movement of concerned citizens from the tech industry and political world who want to see the best possible leader take the reigns of our nation. We are doing this because we care. We love our country and want it run by the most qualified person on earth for the greatest office in the land. Our goal is to inspire Mike Bloomberg to run for President and to know we will help him get elected by harnessing fusing the unstoppable tidal wives of social media with the power of grassroots organizing."

Skip to footer