Andrew Yang prepares to dive into New York City politics with mayoral run-Breaking News

Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur whose upstart presidential campaign outlasted some of the biggest names in Democratic politics, is preparing to launch a run for mayor of New York City.

Yang has been reaching out to local leaders, including New York Rep. Grace Meng of Queens and the Rev. Al Sharpton, to gauge their interest in his potential bid and ask for insight into city politics, a source familiar with the conversations told CNN. If he runs, Yang would make the announcement in early or mid-January, after the Senate runoffs in Georgia.

Largely unknown outside of tech circles before the 2020 primary, Yang won the affection — if not always the votes — of Democrats who appreciated his happy warrior persona on the debate stage and campaign trail. And he was backed by supporters branded the “Yang Gang,” who helped him raise $ 40 million over the course of his run — including a surprising $ 16.5 million as the race heated up in the final three months of 2019.

The former tech executive pushed the idea of a Universal Basic Income into the mainstream of political conversation while striking up bonds with fellow candidates across an ideologically divided primary field. Since ending his presidential bid, Yang founded Humanity Forward, a nonprofit he used to test some of the ideas that animated his campaign, like UBI. In March, he began giving hundreds of working families in New York $ 1,000 a month to determine the effectiveness of such a program. The organization also endorsed down ballot candidates across the country.

Now, Yang appears to have his eyes on another in-demand job. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has come under criticism over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, is term-limited and the contest to replace him begins with the Democratic primary on June 22.

There are already nearly a dozen credible candidates running or weighing bids, all vying to take charge of a pandemic-stricken city, where unemployment is skyrocketing, poverty and hunger are growing, and a budget crunch on the horizon could force the next mayor to make deep cuts to public sector jobs and services.

‘He was never considering until the pandemic’

If Yang ultimately joins the contest, it would mark a reversal from February, when he dropped out of the presidential primary and said he had no plans to run for mayor in New York, where he has lived for nearly 25 years. But that was before the pandemic made its first deadly pass through the city.

“He was never considering (running) until the pandemic and then he watched how it hit his home,” said a source close to Yang, who spent time as a CNN political commentator after he dropped out of the primary. “We would not be having this conversation if it were not for coronavirus.”

Yang has told people privately that he is not concerned about the cutthroat nature of New York politics and understands that a high profile campaign for mayor will invite harsher scrutiny than his underdog bid for president. Questions about his engagement in the city’s political and civic life have already begun to bubble among Gotham politicos, and the chatter increased when it was reported that he didn’t vote in any of the last four mayoral contests.

A source close to Yang said he is prepared to be cast as an out-of-touch national figure in a city that doesn’t take kindly to politicians with ambitions outside its borders. He will try to spin that vulnerability into a strength and argue that his status would be an asset as New York tries to dig itself out of economic catastrophe.

“He also believes it would be useful to have a national figure leading New York City to make a case to the administration and to Congress that New York City’s revival is critical to national revival,” the source told CNN. “New York City is the financial, media and artistic capital of the country and Andrew believes he can make that case more powerfully and broadly than perhaps other candidates could.”

Yang declined to comment on his plans.

The field

One thing that will be familiar to Yang if he takes the plunge: campaigning in a large and diverse field. Though few of the other candidates can match Yang’s grassroots fundraising ability or his ability to marshal a national following, nearly all of them have experience operating the levers of government and stronger, older relationships with the constituencies and power bases that drive votes in a citywide election.

The early favorites are New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who has worked to coalesce city progressives, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former police officer. Among those who could make history as the city’s first female mayor are Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer who served in de Blasio’s administration; Kathryn Garcia, another former top de Blasio aide; progressive former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales; and Loree Sutton, who led the city’s Department of Veterans’ Services. Yang would be New York’s first Asian American mayor.