Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is planning to launch a new third party after his losing New York City mayoral bid, Politico reports.
Yang, who is also shopping a new book, no longer identifies as a Democrat and is expected to launch the party around the time of his book’s October release date.
It’s not clear what the name of the party will be or how it might be deployed.
The book’s publisher said that it will be an indictment of the country’s “era of institutional failure” and will introduce “us to the various ‘priests of the decline’ of America, including politicians whose incentives have become divorced from the people they supposedly serve.”
“Can there be another political party in the U.S.?” The New York Times’ Kara Swisher wrote in a blurb for the book. “In Forward, Yang does not just give us a laundry list of intractable problems, but shows how we can find solutions if we think in new ways and summon the courage to do so.”
Yang built platform around UBI:
It’s unclear what the new party would look like but Yang built his political fortunes around his universal basic income proposal, which would provide $1,000 to every citizen each month.
Yang’s presidential bid fizzled but he gained the support of a number of libertarian-leaning backers.
He tried to reboot his platform to run in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary but dropped out early after it became apparent that he could not win despite outraising his opponents.
Critics pounce:
Many Yang critics quickly panned the party launch as a publicity stunt to sell his book.
“This doesn’t sound like a ploy to drum up interest for his new book, no sir,” quipped Insider reporter Jacob Rubashkin.
“Yang stealing from the Trump playbook, “wrote Washington Post reporter Paul Schwartzman. “1987 release of "Art of the Deal" coincided with a Trump trip to New Hampshire, fueling book sales.”
“If a man launches a third party in the forest, and it still doesn't get votes,” tweeted former Obama aide Tommy Vietor, “did it really launch at all?”
