Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang declared that he will back Vice President Harris and her eventual running mate in the November general election after criticizing the Democrats’ previous choice of President Biden as the party’s nominee.
Yang said in a Tuesday post on X that he is worried about a potential Trump second term and that the former president does not have the “character” to serve.
“Donald Trump has the wrong character and capacities to be President in my view. I fear his second term would make his first one seem benign in accelerating the decline of our institutions,” Yang said. “I’ll be voting for Kamala Harris and her running mate in November. Let’s go!”
A tech entrepreneur, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, had previously issued sharp criticism of the Democratic Party nominating Biden and called on the president to step aside from running for reelection. Biden chose to end his bid for reelection on Sunday following increasingly loud calls from members of his own party.
Biden quickly endorsed Harris after his announcement, and the vice president formally launched her campaign.
Yang said in an interview with NewsNation’s Dan Abrams earlier this month, before Biden’s announcement, that he believed Biden was heading for a “historic loss” that would hand the White House back to Trump and control of Congress to the GOP.
He also shared fears that Biden would lose in January, months before the president’s lackluster debate last month that heightened fears of Biden’s viability as a candidate. He said at a campaign event with Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who ran against Biden in the primaries, that Biden would “deliver us Trump the sequel.”
Yang had supported Biden for president in 2020, endorsing him after Super Tuesday.
Some speculation had swirled around Yang possibly running for president himself, especially after he left the Democratic Party in 2021 and eventually founded the Forward Party, which he has described as a centrist alternative to both major parties. He also confirmed last year that he had “conversations” with the political organization No Labels that had been searching for a unity ticket to run against Trump and Biden in 2024.
No Labels ultimately decided against running such a ticket after not finding a candidate.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had also reportedly asked Yang to serve as his running mate, but Yang was noncommittal. Kennedy eventually chose attorney Nicole Shanahan.
