Matt Rourke/AP
Democratic presidential candidate and businessman Andrew Yang
- Presidential candidate Andrew Yang is officially dropping out of the 2020 Democratic primary race after a disappointing sixth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, CNN and The New York Times report.
- The Yang campaign indicated to supporters and to its staff that it would no longer be viable if Yang did not place within the top four candidates in New Hampshire, including in a Saturday fundraising email.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Presidential candidate Andrew Yang is officially dropping out of the 2020 Democratic primary race after a disappointing finish in the New Hampshire primary, according to CNN and The New York Times.
With almost 25% of the precincts reporting as of 8:15 p.m. ET, Yang is eighth place behind Tom Steyer and Rep. Tulsi Gabbar.
After building a grassroots movement and experiencing a meteoric rise on the national scene, Yang suffered a humbling defeat in the Iowa caucuses, earning just 1% support in the second caucus alignment and receiving zero pledged delegates out of state.
In the wake of the Iowa caucuses, the campaign made significant cuts to its staff, laying off dozens of people across different levels of the campaign.
The Yang campaign indicated to supporters and to its staff that it would no longer be viable if Yang did not place within the top four candidates in New Hampshire, including in a Saturday fundraising email.
"If we miss this fundraising goal and our target finish in New Hampshire, I don't believe we can continue contending at the same level," he wrote.
In a recording of a campaign-wide staff call on Friday obtained by Insider and originally reported by Rolling Stone, a defeated-sounding Yang acknowledged the toll of the layoffs and the uphill battle the campaign is facing ahead of New Hampshire.
"The caucus format was singularly opposed to the dynamic that our campaign tends to attract," Yang said of Iowa, adding, "New Hampshire is, in some ways, the most Yang Gang environment you could imagine."
But on the day of the New Hampshire primary, Tuesday, Yang was in sixth place polling at 3.7% in Real Clear Politics' average of Democratic primary polls, with a low chance of receiving any pledged delegates.
Two Yang campaign staffers told Insider that they saw virtually no chance of Yang placing in the top four candidates in New Hampshire, with one describing the recent layoffs and the fundraising email as national leadership "bracing staff for an eventual reason to drop out."
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