Longshot Democratic candidate Larry Lessig drops out: 'The party won't let me be a candidate'

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published 2 November 2015

Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig announced Monday that he's following in Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb's footsteps and dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary. "I must today end my campaign for the Democratic nomination," Lessig said in a video posted online. "It is now clear that the party won't let me be a candidate, and I can't ask people to support a campaign that I know can't even get before the members of the Democratic Party, or to ask my team or my family to make a sacrifice even greater than what they've already made."

Lessig had launched his campaign just 12 weeks ago with the plan, if elected, to pass the Citizen Equality Act — a legislative proposal for greater voter protection — and then resign. However, Lessig says that the Democratic Party has effectively made his bid impossible by "changing the rules in the debates," preventing him from participating because he did not register the requisite 0 to 2 percent support in the polls.