Andrew Yang‘s mayoral campaign is reportedly unhappy with the recent praise it has received from a former Trump official.
The recent approval tweets from Stephen Miller, who served as a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, have become a political headache for Yang, who is campaigning as a progressive candidate for mayor of New York City, because Miller “doesn’t endorse normal Democrats,” according to one Yang aide.
“It’s hurting us. [Miller] must know that,” the Yang campaign aide told Politico, adding that the candidate’s supporters are asking, “‘Why is this happening? What is happening?’ It’s making people question why people like Andrew Yang.”
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In response to speculation that Miller is attempting to sabotage Yang in favor of Eric Adams, another mayoral candidate who is considered a more conservative alternative, Miller said he would “never play that game.”
“If I was working for a candidate, I would very publicly be working for that candidate. Full stop,” he told the outlet.
Miller, who has praised Yang for being “right to focus on the fast-growing crime menace in NYC,” being “correct” for his stance on dealing with the city’s mentally ill, and deserving of praise “for taking a clear stand against terrorism,” among other words of approval, said that Yang has “taken on positions antithetical to the progressive left in a very progressive primary.”
“He hasn’t made any real significant attempt to distance himself from Republican praise, … which suggests to me that he, as an individual, understands that there are a lot of independent voters in the primary,” he said.
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Though Yang is considered the front-runner in the Democratic primary to replace outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, Adams, the centrist Brooklyn borough president and former police officer, has taken the lead in recent polling. The primary will be held on June 22, followed by a general election on Nov. 2. Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York City by a margin of more than 6-to-1, according to the most recently available data.
Representatives from the Yang campaign and the America First Legal Foundation, Miller’s new conservative legal group, did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
