Entrepreneur Andrew Yang has dropped out of the race to become the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, ending an upstart campaign that rose from complete obscurity to competitiveness.
Yang ended his campaign as ballots were still being counted in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, with early results indicating he had failed to win even 3% of the vote.
“Endings are hard and I’ve always had the intention to stay in this race,” he told supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire. “I am the math guy, and it’s clear from the numbers we’re not going to win this campaign.”
A lawyer by trade, the 45-year old began his candidacy with no political profile. He had never run for office before or had any significant presence in American political circles.
Yet Yang was able to build a following, centering his policy positions on modernizing American industry and better aligning it with an economy changing rapidly due to automation and technology. His signature policy was a promise to provide every American with a universal basic income of $1,000 a month.
Proudly declaring his run as “the nerdiest presidential campaign in history”, Yang would describe himself as the “polar opposite of Donald Trump – an Asian man who likes to do math”.
Though he did not gain many endorsements from top-tier lawmakers, he did win the support of figures such as Donald Glover and the Tesla founder Elon Musk.
His followers called themselves the “Yang Gang” and his campaign merchandise included shirts and hats emblazoned with the word “MATH”.
Yang, one of only a handful of Asian Americans to have run for president, proudly spoke of his heritage. Towards the end of 2019, as the historically diverse field of 2020 candidates for the Democratic nomination narrowed and many competitors dropped out, Yang found himself as the only non-white man still standing on the Democratic debate stage.
After leading an unconventional campaign, Yang achieved poll numbers in the single digits – not enough for him to be regarded as a frontrunner, but higher than some of the veteran politicians in the field.
He also proved he could be a competitive fundraiser, raising over $15m, a significant haul for any presidential candidate but still far less than the frontrunners in the Democratic primary. He never had a lock on an early primary state and as the Iowa caucuses voted, Yang struggled to qualify for debates.
Before running for president, Yang founded Venture for America, a not-for-profit group working to help create jobs in cities that had been hit by the Great Recession.
Yang’s family also featured prominently in his campaign. He spoke often about his son’s autism and the need to provide better treatment and services for children and families with special needs.
“To me, special needs is the new normal in this country,” Yang said during a presidential debate last year.
His wife, Evelyn Yang, also revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by her gynecologist in 2012, when she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. Initially, Yang said, she blamed herself and didn’t tell her husband.
She told CNN that “everyone has their own #MeToo story” but that not everyone has “the audience or platform to tell their story”.
“I’m in this very privileged position to be able to do that,” she said, explaining why she chose to go public with her experience. Since Yang’s interview, several more women have come forward to accuse the doctor of assault.
Yang was not the only candidate to depart the race on Tuesday. Senator Michael Bennet, of Colorado, also dropped out, whittling the Democratic field to single digits.
Maanvi Singh and Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
