Yang campaign fires staffers in wake of poor Iowa showing
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang‘s campaign fired staffers in the wake of a poor finish in the Iowa caucuses, multiple campaign aides told CNN on Thursday.
Those fired include the campaign’s national political director, the deputy national political director, multiple policy staffers and some Iowa staffers.
With 97% of Iowa’s precincts reporting, Yang has 1% of state delegates. National polls of the Democratic primary find the businessman and presidential candidate in the low single digits.
“As part of our original plans following the Iowa caucuses, we are winding down our Iowa operations and restructuring to compete as the New Hampshire primary approaches,” Yang’s campaign manager, Zach Graumann, said in a statement.
“These actions are a natural evolution of the campaign post-Iowa, same as other campaigns have undertaken, and Andrew Yang is going to keep fighting for the voices of the more than 400,000 supporters who have donated to the campaign and placed a stake in the future of our country,” the statement reads.
Politico first reported the firing of the staffers.
The Iowa Democratic Party is still working to fully report the results from Monday night’s caucuses, after a string of issues during the reporting process significantly delayed the results.
Yang slammed the chaos in Iowa Wednesday night at a CNN town hall, and said the New Hampshire primary is expected to be smoother as the Iowa Democratic Party still works to get results out.
“(Former President) Bill Clinton got 3% in (Iowa in) 1992. He went on to do great here in New Hampshire and become President for two terms,” Yang said at the town hall. “We hope we can follow in his footsteps.”
Clinton won 2.8% of the vote in the 1992 Iowa caucuses, according to the Des Moines Register.
As of Thursday afternoon, with 97% of precincts reporting, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg remained the leader of the race, with 26.2% of state delegates. He is closely trailed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, with 26.1%. They’re followed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 18.2%, former Vice President Joe Biden at 15.8% and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 12.2%.
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez called for a recanvass of all results in Iowa on Thursday. In a recanvass, all the numbers that were released by the state party would be checked against the results that were recorded at caucus sites.
