Billionaire Mike Bloomberg qualifies for his first Democratic presidential debate after poll surge

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg will take part in a Democratic presidential debate for the first time, his campaign has confirmed.

To qualify for the debate in Nevada on Wednesday, the ex-New York Mayor had to score above double digits in four national polls recognised by the Democratic Party.

On Tuesday, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found he had support from 19 per cent of those surveyed.

He came in second place in the poll to Bernie Sanders who came in first with 31 per cent, with Joe Biden placing third with 15 per cent.

The telephone survey of 527 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents was conducted by the Marist Poll at the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 percentage points.

Mr Bloomberg has chosen to bypass the first four nomination contests and instead use his personal fortune to define himself through television ads.

The 78-year-old presidential candidate plans to enter the race on March 3, known as Super Tuesday, when 14 states will vote.

He launched his presidential campaign in November but has not taken part in a debate yet.

On Wednesday, Mr Bloomberg will appear at the Las Vegas debate alongside former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Fellow billionaire and philanthropist Tom Steyer is still hoping to qualify.

Mr Bloomberg's campaign said that it was seeing "a groundswell of support across the country" and that qualifying for Wednesday's debate "is the latest sign that Mike's plan and ability to defeat Donald Trump is resonating with more Americans."

"Mike is looking forward to joining the other Democratic candidates on stage and making the case for why he's the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump and unite the country," Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement.

The Democratic National Committee recently changed its rules for how a candidate qualifies for the debate, opening the door for Mr Bloomberg to be on stage and drawing the ire of some candidates who dropped out of the race after failing to make prior stages.

The candidates were previously required to receive a certain number of campaign contributions to qualify, but Mr Bloomberg, who is worth an estimated $60 billion, is not taking donations.

The prime-time event will be a stark departure from Mr Bloomberg's highly choreographed campaign.

He's poured more than $300 million into television advertising, a way to define himself for voters without facing criticism.

While he's campaigned in more than two dozen states, he does not take questions from voters and delivers a standard stump speech that lasts less than 15 minutes, often reading from a teleprompter.

He encounters the occasional protester, including one who jumped on stage recently in Chattanooga, Tennessee, yelling: "This is not democracy. This is a plutocracy!"

But his friendly crowds usually quickly overwhelm the protesters with chants of "We like Mike!"

Mr Bloomberg is likely to face far more direct fire in the debate.

His fellow Democratic contenders have stepped up their attacks against him in recent days, decrying him for trying to "buy the election" and criticising his support of the "stop-and-frisk" tactic while mayor of New York City that led police to target mostly black and Hispanic men for searches.

He rarely mentions his rivals by name, though his campaign is centered on the idea that none of them can beat President Donald Trump.

And Mr Bloomberg, more than anyone, has predicated his campaign on a potential Mr Biden collapse.

He's been aggressive in targeting African American voters in the South, a core demographic for Mr Biden's campaign.

Mr Biden said he doesn't think "you can buy an election."

"I'm going to get a chance to debate him on everything from redlining to stop and frisk to a whole range of other things," he told reporters last week.

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