Harvard professor Lawrence “Larry” Lessig ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Monday. In his brief presidential bid, Lessig focused on campaign finance reform.
Lessig started exploring a presidential bid back in August, promising to get in the race if he could raise $1 million by Labor Day. While he met that threshold and entered the race, Lessig was not invited to take part in the first Democratic presidential debate.
On Monday, Lessig released a Web video and, in it, says his lack of inclusion in the debates doomed his campaign. Lessig also said the new standard for inclusion in the debates ensured he was left out of the debates.
"Now from the start it was clear that getting into the Democratic debates was the essential step in this campaign," Lessig said. "I may be known in tiny corners of the tubes of the internets but I am not well-known to the American public generally. Our only chance....was to be in those debates. But last week, we learned that the Democratic Party has changed its rules for inclusion in the debate and, under the new rules, unless we can time travel, there is no way that I can qualify."
“The party won’t let me be a candidate,” Lessig insisted.
Lessig promised to be a “referendum president" who would make political reform the center of his campaign and promised to resign the White House once he had achieved it. Lessig started out on the right, working as a clerk for Antonin Scalia, but drifted to the left, backing President Barack Obama and taking the public stage to call for ending gerrymandering and limiting the role money can play in politics. The Harvard professor has also been active fighting for Net neutrality and more free software. While he has moved to the left on several fronts, Lessig has agreed with many in the tea party movement about the need for a new constitutional convention, even as they clash on what it should pursue.
Currently, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading the Democratic primary, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in second and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley way behind.
Lessig joins two other Democrats -- former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia--in getting out of the race though Webb has opened the door to continuing his effort outside of the major parties. Vice President Joe Biden announced last month that he would not run.
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