Andrew Yang, who garnered national attention during his failed 2020 presidential campaign, has filed paperwork to run to be the next mayor of New York City.
Yang filed the paperwork necessary to enter the already crowded field of candidates on Wednesday, the Campaign Finance Board confirmed to New York Daily News. Yang’s bid has been a topic of speculation in the city for months. He has not yet made a public announcement.
Yang, a Democrat, is entering a crowded field of hopefuls vying to be New York City’s next mayor. According to the Daily News:
As of Wednesday, candidates include city Comptroller Scott Stringer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, Mayor de Blasio’s former legal adviser Maya Wiley, former HUD secretary Shaun Donovan, City Councilman Ron Menchaca and former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire, among several others.
A poll taken before Yang officially filed his paperwork had him favored to win the race, though just slightly. A poll conducted by Education Reform Now Advocacy (ERNA) on Dec. 16 and 17 found that Yang and Adams led the field at 17% and 16%, respectively. Other candidates polled as follows, according to ERNA:
- Maya Wiley 7%
- Christine Quinn 6%
- Dianne Morales 5%
- Scott Stringer 5%
- Raymond McGuire 4%
- Someone else/not sure 40%
Yang ignited controversy last week when he posited that people could get a bracelet or virtual barcode to show that they had been vaccinated against COVID-19. Yang’s comments mirrored a practice in China used by the Chinese Communist Party to track its people, especially Uyghurs and other oppressed minority groups.
“Is there a way for someone to easily show that they have been vaccinated — like a bar code they can download to their phone?” Yang speculated on Twitter Friday. “There ought to be.”
“Tough to have mass gatherings like concerts or ballgames without either mass adoption of the vaccine or a means of signaling,” he added. “I’ve been tested at a photo shoot or interview and gotten a bracelet showing I was negative. Then we could interact more freely.”
New York City’s current mayor, Bill de Blasio, is deep underwater in his favorability rating in the city. About 39% of Democratic voters in the city have a favorable view of the mayor while a whopping 56% of Democratic voters have an unfavorable view, according to the ERNA. The striking view of the mayor comes after months of onerous restrictions on residents and businesses allegedly designed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
In a press conference last week, de Blasio said that the pandemic crisis has made him rethink his approach to education and other issues across the city. He said that his administration’s goal is to “redistribute wealth” in the city, and, moving forward, he will enact policies to reach that goal more quickly.
“There has been so much that needed to be addressed in education in New York City. And from the beginning, what I tried to focus on was a very simple concept, equity and excellence – that we needed to profoundly change the distribution of resources,” de Blasio said. “I like to say very bluntly, our mission is to redistribute wealth. A lot of people bristle at that phrase – that is in fact the phrase we need to use.”