On Tuesday in New Hampshire, Andrew Yang suspended his political campaign, concluding the upstart run that propelled the Entrepreneur from utter uncertainty to a Democratic candidate supported by a devotee following known as the Yang Gang.
“I am so incredibly proud of this campaign and of what we have achieved together,” Yang said in Manchester, New Hampshire, Tuesday night. “We’ve touched and changed millions of lives, and pushed this country in the right direction we love so much. So while there’s still a lot of work to do — you know I’m the math guy— from the numbers tonight it’s obvious that we won’t win this race”.
He continued: “I’m not someone who wants to accept contributions and money in a battle we won’t win. So, tonight I’m announcing I’m suspending my presidential campaign.”
The announcement was made as polls closed in the State, the 2020 race’s first Democratic primary.
Yang said he would help whoever won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday but encouraged his fellow candidates to look past President Donald Trump as they design their American visions.
He told The Washington Post that he had not taken a decision on any endorsements, but would be interested in joining another candidate as a running mate or operating in a Democratic Cabinet.
A novice to politics, Yang spent much of the early part of the campaign showing up on podcasts and embracing the phenomenon of Internet meme to broaden his reach.
His framework of giving Americans $1,000 a month as a way to counter transformative economic trends such as automation, along with his demand that tech firms pay billions of dollars to monetize their data, proved to be a major drawback.
Yang — the son of Taiwanese immigrants who was born in 1975 in Schenectady, New York — had no experience in politics until running for president. In October he told CNN he lost all three times he ran for seats in the student government.
Yet Yang, after a brief tenure in the early 2000’s at a law firm, became the CEO of a test prep firm and then founded Venture for America, a non-profit organization which aimed at linking fresh graduates and helping them in star-up’s.
A former tech executive, Yang formally declared his candidacy through the Federal Election Commission in 2017, but his campaign received much of its traction in early 2018 when news agencies and voters inquired into the specifics of his proposal to provide Americans with what has been known as “Universal Basic Income.”
“This is a transition that we must make,” Yang said in June 2019, during a discussion with other Democratic candidates. “Technology is driving millions of American jobs”.
Yang’s announcement comes one week after a disappointing result in Iowa where the campaign has invested a lot of money and spent two weeks on a bus tour leading up to the caucuses (Where local members decide their preferences). The project didn’t get off the ground: Yang finished in Iowa with just 1 percent support and had to lay off workers after leaving the state with dwindling resources as he was seeking to cover the costs of his campaign.
“Hard endings New Hampshire, but this is not a finish, it’s a beginning,” Yang said.
“It’s just the start line. In this nation, and within ourselves, this movement has awakened something profound. The Yang Gang has profoundly shifted this country’s course and transformed our politics, and we only keep on growing.
Recommended video!
“Wife Sends a Photo to her Marine Husband Abroad, then she’s divorced”