Andrew Yang fires dozens of campaign staff after Iowa caucuses
Andrew Yang's presidential campaign has fired dozens of staffers following the Iowa caucuses, including the national political and policy directors as well as the deputy national policy director. Though the results of the contest are not yet final, Yang had a disappointing finish, appearing so far to have placed a distant sixth, with just 1% of state delegate equivalents, according to the Iowa Democratic Party results.
The national policy and political directors, as well as the deputy national policy director, were terminated. Politico first reported the layoffs, though The Yang campaign denied parts of a report in Politico, saying these were not "senior" level officials.
Yang campaign manager Zach Graumann said in a statement, "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."
He called it part of "a natural evolution of the campaign post-Iowa, same as other campaigns have undertaken."
One senior Yang campaign official emphasized that the dismissals had been planned "pre-Iowa caucus," and said "it was always part of the calculation — it's similar to the news coming out of the Biden campaign."
Yang spent 20 days in Iowa in January alone and appeared at 76 events leading up to the caucuses.
Yang is facing some financial pressure, since the rate of his campaign's spending was outpacing its fundraising, with outlays of $19 million in the fourth quarter of last year on $16.5 million in donations. The campaign spent nearly $7 million on TV ads in Iowa from November through caucus night Monday, according to Kantar Media Group.
