Andrew Yang, who had an unsuccessful bid for New York City mayor in 2021 and ran for president in 2020, endorsed Suraj Patel in New York’s 12th Congressional District on Monday.
Patel, a 36-year-old lawyer and business ethics professor at New York University, is running in the Democratic primary against incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Rep. Jerry Nadler, who currently represents New York’s 10th District but will now compete in a redrawn 12th after a judge ruled New York’s political maps unconstitutional.
Yang said Patel represents part of the next generation of leaders and pledged to help him win.
“Do you want someone who is going to be on the verge of retirement the next time Democrats really have a chance to get something done, who is going to be 78, 79, even older?” Yang said. “Or do you want someone who at that point will be in his early 40s, just building seniority and representing this district and community for years and years to come? We know that we need the latter.”
Yang’s comments about age are consistent with statements he’s made in the past, saying “America is a gerontocracy” and calling for term limits for lawmakers.
On Monday, Yang also spoke about the uphill battle for Democrats in the midterm elections in November.
“Speaking brutally honestly, the odds are that Democrats will not be in power in the House until ’26 at the earliest, at which point both Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler will be much closer to retirement than in terms of spearheading new policy or legislation,” Yang said.
Patel is not a first-time candidate. He ran against Maloney both in 2018 and 2020, when he came in second by 4 points.
This endorsement comes eight months after Yang announced he was leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent voter in a blog post published on his website.
“I’ve been a Democrat my entire adult life,” Yang wrote. “And yet, I’m confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing.”
The primary is set to take place in August.