MINNEAPOLIS — Democrat Michael Bloomberg dropped into Minneapolis Thursday to open the first of what he says will be eight Minnesota field offices.
A few hundred people wedged themselves into the office space, an 1887 building in the city's warehouse district, to hear from the former New York Mayor and self-made billionaire.
Bloomberg's speech focused on tax fairness, infrastructure, education, affordable healthcare and what he views as the urgent need to defeat President Donald J. Trump in November.
"This is a campaign for change, for sanity, honesty, inclusion, compassion, and human decency," Bloomberg remarked.
"I am the un-Trump!"
Bloomberg's taking an unconventional track, largely conceding the four early states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- to those who launched their campaigns while he was still on the sidelines.
"By the time I decided to run in November it was too late to get into those first four. I had campaigned in all four of those states and got a nice reception, but by the time I went in all of the operatives were taken up," he told KARE.
And he's, thus far, been disqualified from candidate debates because he's won't ask supporters for money. The ability to attract donations is part of the DNC's requirements to qualify for debates; the threshold for the Jan. 14 Iowa Debate was 225,000 individual donors.
"For three elections in New York City, I didn't take any money from anybody and I'm not going to do it this time," Bloomberg explained.
"People say, 'Why don't you take a dollar from everybody?' It sets the wrong image. I am incorruptible. My administration is scrupulously honest."
This was his second trip to Minnesota since jumping into the race; he toured a soybean farm in southern Minnesota Jan. 7. Since then he's been ramping field staffing here at a rapid pace.
And anyone with a TV set has seen one of his campaign aids. Analysts report Bloomberg's advertising campaign surpassed $200 million nationally by the middle of January.
He conceded many Minnesotans will feel inclined to support their home state candidate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, in the Super Tuesday presidential primary.
"I'm sure she'll get a lot of support. But if you don't vote for Amy, vote for me!"
The one uniquely Minnesota issue Bloomberg's weighed in on is the specter of copper sulfide ore mining near the Boundary Waters. This week he became the sixth presidential candidate to pledge he'll block any copper mining near the BWCA.
That stance would reverse Trump Administration actions that opened the door for the Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in the planning stages at sites near Ely, Minn.
"I think it's one of the dumber ideas I've ever heard," Bloomberg told KARE.
"You have an environmentally-sensitive area that is one of the great things in this country, and to open a mine in it that could destroy what's good doesn't make any sense."
The other candidates who had signed the pledge before Bloomberg were Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer and John Delaney.
The president has taunted Bloomberg on Twitter, branding him "Mini Mike Bloomberg" and suggested he's not seriously interested in helping fellow Democrats. Bloomberg told reporters the social media attention serves as evidence the president fears a Bloomberg match-up in November.
"He's obviously worried because he thinks, I'm sure he thinks, that I'm the one that can beat him."
The president has also called him a "terrible debater" and suggested that's why he's avoiding the debates. Bloomberg said he's sure he could perform well in those debates, if he could qualify without raising money from donors.
