Well, that didn’t take long, and we don’t even have full results from New Hampshire yet, but businessman Andrew Yang has announced he is ending his 2020 presidential campaign. Citing a lack of ongoing support, a campaign spokesman said Yang decided to pull the plug once the campaign saw no real path toward the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Essentially, it’s all in the math, as NPR reports:
Andrew Yang is dropping out of the 2020 Democratic race for the White House on the same day primary voters in New Hampshire are casting their ballots.
The 45-year-old entrepreneur and first time presidential candidate had hoped his signature idea of giving every American adult a universal basic income of $1,000 a month would help lift him to the White House. However, while campaigning in the second state to vote in the presidential contest, Yang decided it was time to officially call it quits.
“By the numbers, the decision was pretty clear,” Zach Graumann, Yang’s campaign manager told the NewsHour on Tuesday. “It doesn’t feel honest to keep taking money and enthusiasm from our supporters, but also from the Democratic Party. It’s obviously a difficult decision, but we believe the right one.”
Graumann said Yang no longer saw a “real chance to win the nomination” but hopes to have a future in politics.
In all sincerity, Yang went much, much further in this race that most analysts and commentators ever expected. The reasoning for that is likely related to the way voters are looking less and less at a candidate’s extensive political experience as the most important prerequisite for holding office.
Yang seemed to acknowledge the news on Twitter but didn’t divulge too much yet:
I am so proud of this campaign. Thank you to everyone who got us here. ?
— Andrew Yang????? (@AndrewYang) February 12, 2020
Here is the full video of Yang addressing and thanking supporters as he announces the decision to suspend his campaign:
