By Mark Zdechlik
MPR News/90.1 FM

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened a presidential campaign office Thursday in Minneapolis — the first of eight he plans in Minnesota.

“We can’t take states like Minnesota for granted,” Bloomberg said, noting that Donald Trump nearly defeated Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016. “That’s why we’re not waiting to organize and invest in Minnesota.”

In the heart of Amy Klobuchar’s territory, Bloomberg assessed the U.S. senator as a presidential candidate.

“People say nothing but good things about her,” Bloomberg said. But he added the country needs a Democrat with an executive background.

“Her experience as a legislator is the same experience that Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have,” he said. “It’s great if you’re in the Senate, but it isn’t terribly useful if you’ve got to manage something.”

The billionaire businessman entered the Democratic presidential nomination relatively late to challenge candidates he said would lose to President Trump. He’s convinced a Democrat who supports abolishing private health insurance will not be victorious in November.

In an interview with MPR News, Bloomberg talked of his work in New York following the 9/11 terror attacks and how that experience applies now.

“To rebuild America, we need to do more than win in November,” Bloomberg said. “I’m running to unite this country and to bring people together and start getting big things done which we’ve forgotten how to do.”

A compilation of polls has Bloomberg tied for fourth place nationally behind Biden, Sanders and Warren.