Back when Brian Varela launched a longshot campaign for the 8th congressional district in 2022, one of the few politicians anywhere who was willing to stand with him against party favorite Rob Menendez was Andrew Yang, the idiosyncratic former presidential candidate and businessman.
Varela has come a long way since then, moving into the 7th congressional district and establishing himself as one of the district’s leading Democratic candidates – and Yang is now on his side once again.
“I’m proud to endorse Brian Varela for Congress,” Yang, whose 2020 presidential campaign caught on for a time thanks to his famous promise to implement Universal Basic Income, said in a statement today. “Brian brings people together around problem-solving, democratic reform, and a politics that puts people over party. He’s a builder with the courage to challenge the status quo, and that’s exactly the kind of leadership we need in Washington.”
After Varela’s 2022 campaign for the 8th district ran aground due to a petition challenge, Varela became a New Jersey state leader of the Forward Party, Yang’s centrist-leaning third party. “More than sixty percent of voters across the country want a third party and who can blame them,” Varela said at the time.
Now, though, Varela is firmly back in the Democratic fold, and is one of six Democrats seeking to unseat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) this year. Yang is one of the first people with a prominent national political profile to weigh in on the race, but Varela has been accumulating local endorsements for months, most notably from Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.