Andrew Yang, the technology entrepreneur who rose national prominence as a 2020 Democratic candidate for the presidency, he has submitted paperwork to run for mayor of New York City. The decision prepares him to join a crowded Democratic race just six months before the primaries are likely to determine the next mayor.
A financial form for Yang’s possible campaign was presented to the city’s Campaign Finance Board on Wednesday. Yang also now appears as a mayoral candidate on the city-wide list of finance board candidates.
The paperwork does not guarantee that Yang will work and so far has made no contribution to the campaign. A source close to Yang told CBS News that these steps are “procedural only” and that no decision has been made, but added that Yang “is taking it seriously and this was the next necessary step.”
A poll released this week by Education Reform Now Advocacy, a charter school advocacy group, showed Yang as the top candidate for the next mayor of New York, though he had not yet filed paperwork or announced a campaign. Yang led the vote with 17% support, 1% more than Eric Adams, the president of the Brooklyn district, considered one of the top candidates.
Yang has also been nominated as a possible candidate for the U.S. Secretary of Commerce at the entrance Biden Administration, sources told CBS News, although a source said there would likely be a conflict with the mayor.
Adam Glanzman / Bloomberg via Getty Images
About 40 people have submitted procedures for the mayor’s race, including several from the world of technology and finance. Yang never held the elected office and began his first campaign when he ran in the Democratic presidential candidacy.
In the White House race, Yang overtook the current mayor of New York Bill de Blasio, who ended his four-month campaign after voting in single digits and then approved Senator Bernie Sanders. de Blasio will be out of office in 2021.
Yang’s career also overlapped with the late and brief presidential campaign of the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, which preceded Blasio.
Yang gained strength for his Universal Basic Income platform from sending $ 1,000 a month to all Americans over the age of 18. But his presidential candidacy failed to win many voters. Yang Abandoned after the New Hampshire primaries in February 2020 and later passed by Joe Biden.
A few weeks after finishing his career in the White House, Yang began publicly considering a candidacy for mayor of New York; lives in Manhattan, although he recently moved temporarily to Georgia to campaign for the two Democratic candidates for the state January 5th. Seconds of the Senate.
Mayoral primaries will be held in June 2021 and the winner is likely to win the November general election, as New York City is a Democratic stronghold.
Sarah Ewall-Wice and Nikole Killion contributed to this report.