- The Washington Times - Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Andrew Yang on Tuesday became the latest former White House hopeful to endorse the presidential campaign of current Democratic front-runner Joseph R. Biden.

Mr. Yang, a businessman who dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination last month, announced his support for the former vice president during an appearance on CNN.

“I believe that Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, and I’ve said I was always going to support whoever the nominee is, so I hereby am endorsing Joe Biden to be not just the nominee of Democratic party, but for the next president of the United States,” Mr. Yang said.

“The math says Joe is our prohibitive nominee,” Mr. Yang added later. “We need to bring the party together. We need to start working on defeating Donald Trump in the fall.”

Mr. Yang announced his endorsement as preliminary results from Democratic presidential primaries held in six states Tuesday inched Mr. Biden closer to securing the party’s nomination over Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent. As of Wednesday morning, Mr. Biden was projected to win nominating contests held the day before in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri, adding to his tally of delegates needed to become the nominee in November.

Mr. Sanders won the Democratic primary in North Dakota Tuesday, while the results of a race for the nomination held in Washington state remained too close to call early Wednesday.

In announcing his endorsement, Mr. Yang became the latest addition to a growing list of former Democratic presidential hopefuls backing Mr. Biden for the party’s nomination.

Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, both Democrats previously seeking the party’s presidential nomination, previously endorsed Mr. Biden on Sunday and Monday, respectively. Other former White House hopefuls to recently endorse Mr. Biden after ending their bids include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat.

Months before ending his presidential campaign, Mr. Yang hinted at possibly teaming up with Mr. Biden if the latter wins the nomination to run in November against President Trump.

“I’m definitely open to working with Joe. We’ve actually talked about it,” Mr. Yang said at an event in October.

• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.

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