Yang says it ‘wouldn’t be surprising’ if many of his supporters back Sanders in Iowa

2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang says that it wouldn’t surprise him if his supporters wind up backing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Monday’s Iowa caucuses in parts of the state where his campaign does not meet the threshold for winning delegates.

In an interview with Bloomberg published Wednesday, the former tech entrepreneur said that “many” of his supporters could end up in Sanders’s camp if his campaign fails to meet the 15 percent threshold in precincts across the Hawkeye State. Candidates must receive support from 15 percent of caucusgoers in a given location for their candidate to remain viable.

Caucusgoers who support a candidate that does not reach viability have the option to back another or none at all.

“I think that Bernie and I do have a lot of overlap in support so it wouldn’t be surprising to me if many of our supporters head in that direction,” Yang said.

His remarks come as he remains in the single digits in most polls of Iowa with just days left to go, while Sanders now sits on top of several recent polls of the first-in-the-nation caucus state, above rivals such as former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

In the Wednesday interview, Yang hinted that several candidates had reached out to his campaign about formal arrangements in such cases, though he did not explain further.

A poll released Wednesday found Sanders and Biden at the top of the pack in Iowa, with support from 21 percent and 23 percent of caucusgoers, respectively.