Courtesy Lessig Campaign
Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig announced on Monday that he is dropping out of the presidential race. Lessig had been running for the Presidency as a Democrat for roughly two months.
Lessig’s election reform-focused campaign failed to gain major traction with the public and his low poll numbers prevented him from getting into the debates. Without the debates, his name recognition remained low. However, Lessig did raise over one million dollars.
“Now from the start it was clear that getting into the Democratic debates was the essential step in this campaign,” Lessig said in a YouTube video. “I may be known in tiny corners of the tubes of the internets, but I am not well-known to the American public generally.”
Lessig had focused his campaign in New Hampshire, but he still struggled.
Lessig’s campaign was treated as a sideshow initially as he had pledged to step down after reform was passed. He later dropped this part of his pledge after finding it was a turn-off to voters and he said he would serve a full term.
The Democratic nomination is now officially down to three candidates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Governor Martin O’Malley.