Earlier this month, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg filed paperwork to officially join the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. While his candidacy (as of this writing) is by no means certain since he has not officially confirmed that he is running, the step of filing has garnered enough attention to boost his chances of being nominated to run against President Trump. Some, however, aren’t taking it seriously, largely because Bloomberg declared in March of this year that he would not seek the nomination, and only filed the paperwork the day after Trump said: “There is nobody I'd rather run against than ‘Little Michael.’ ” (Others feel that perhaps it was more a response to Trump’s earlier comment that Bloomberg "doesn't have the magic" to win the election.)

Realistically, the filing of paperwork only means he’s keeping his options open. Given how relatively late we are in the election cycle, especially considering that in the last 43 years, the latest any eventual nominee entered the race was August, Bloomberg’s campaign would have to be incredibly swift and efficient in order to establish enough of a presence to make the debate stage, let alone actually have a chance at winning the nomination. His candidacy would, however, shake up the Democratic primary in a couple of ways.

The first one is fundraising, the main concern after actually winning enough votes. It is certainly less of an issue for Bloomberg than for other candidates, since his net worth is $53 billion and he has already pledged $500 million to unseat Trump regardless of who the nominee is, $175 million more than the Trump campaign spent in 2016. His ability to spend huge amounts in the primaries too could complicate things for his competitors. Then, of course, there are the differences in his positions. Bloomberg has stated his belief that the nominee must be able to defeat Trump. Given that he has disparaged Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax as socialism and that Joe Biden, who is closer to him on such issues, continues to have difficulty with fundraising, a Bloomberg candidacy may be viable if it’s launched now. Bloomberg, Biden, and perhaps Pete Buttigieg are theoretically aiming to be the centrist alternative to the more liberal candidates. Most of the support for a Bloomberg campaign will most likely emerge from people who now favor Biden and Buttigieg. If moderates are more capable than progressives in beating Trump, such a split among more moderate voters could give Warren just enough of an advantage to win the nomination--and then potentially lose to Trump. If Bloomberg’s purpose in running is to ensure that the candidate most capable of taking down Trump will get the nomination, then the general election might truly be over before it begins.