Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig dropped out of the presidential race on Monday, saying the Democratic Party shut him out of the debates, making it impossible for his campaign to gain traction.
"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 announcing his withdrawal, reports The Verge.
Lessig blamed the Democratic Party for changing it rules for qualifying for the debates, adding that he wanted to run as a Democrat, but now "the party won't let me," according to The Hill.
In order to qualify for Democratic debates, candidates must poll at least 1 percent in three "credible national polls" in the six weeks leading up to the debate, according to the debate rules announced by the Democratic National Committee. But according to Lessig, the DNC changed those rules last week, now requiring the three polls to come before the six-week mark, rather than within the six-week timeframe, reports The Huffington Post.
"Under the new rule, unless we can time travel, there is no way that I will qualify," said Lessig, who had been polling at less than 1 percent most of the summer but recently took 1 percent in two national polls.
"I may be known in tiny corners in the tubes of the Internet, but I am not well known to the general public generally. Our only chance to make this issue central to the 2016 presidential election was to be in those debates," Lessig said.
Lessig says he now plans to "turn to the question of how best to press for this reform now," telling The Hill that he may even run as an independent. "Nothing (legal) has been ruled out," he said.
Lessig crowdfunded his campaign to the tune of $1 million and was running on a platform focused exclusively on campaign finance reform. His plan was to get elected, pass one law - the Citizen Equality Act - and then resign. The law would change how elections are funded, end partisan gerrymandering and expand voting access.
He later called the resignation idea "totally stupid," and withdrew that promise, reported MSN.
