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

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.

That exposure, Lessig says, would have been essential. "I may be known in tiny corners of the Tubes of the Internets [sic], but I am not known well to the American public generally," Lessig said. "Last week, we learned that the Democratic Party has changed its rules for inclusion in the debate, and under the new rule, unless we can time travel, there is no way that I will qualify."

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Lessig's decision to drop out leaves only three candidates left in the Democratic primary: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Watch Lessig's full video announcement below. Becca Stanek