(CNN) Andrew Yang suspended his political campaign on Tuesday in New Hampshire, ending the upstart run that vaulted the businessman from complete obscurity to a Democratic contender backed by a devoted following known as the Yang Gang.

"While there is great work left to be done, you know I am the math guy, and it is clear tonight from the numbers that we are not going to win this race," Yang told supporters in Manchester.

He continued: "I am not someone who wants to accept donations and support in a race that we will not win. And so, tonight I am announcing I am suspending my campaign for president."

Yang said he did not make the decision lightly, and that he had every intention of staying in the race until the very end. But, he said, he was "persuaded that the message of this campaign will not be strengthened by my staying in this race any longer."

The entrepreneur said his campaign had "outlasted over a dozen senators, governors and members of Congress to become the most exciting force in this entire race."

"The Yang Gang has fundamentally shifted the direction of this country and transformed our politics, and we are only continuing to grow," Yang continued.

Yang's decision comes a week after a disappointing finish in Iowa, where the campaign invested millions and spent two weeks on a bus tour leading up to the caucuses. The investment didn't pan out: Yang finished with just 1% support in Iowa and, after leaving the state with depleted resources, had to lay off staff as he looked to trim his campaign's costs.

"With a crystal ball, we might not have invested as much energy in Iowa, because I think that that lack of clarity afterwards hurt every candidate," Yang told CNN the day before the New Hampshire primary. "But we're excited about being here in New Hampshire."

But Yang lacked the kind of infrastructure in New Hampshire that he had in Iowa, leading aides to expect another less than stellar finish.

Even days before the primary, top Yang aides were candid about the future of the campaign.

"If we don't show as well in New Hampshire, there will be some reassessment," said a Yang aide, "especially if it ends up being the worst-case scenario."

Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Andrew Yang was one of the earliest candidates to announce a presidential bid for the 2020 election. Hide Caption 1 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang was born January 13, 1975, to the parents of Taiwanese immigrants in upstate New York. He has one older brother, Lawrence. On his campaign website, Yang said his dad was a researcher at IBM who generated dozens of patents over his career. His mother was the systems administrator at a local university. Hide Caption 2 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang and his brother in another childhood photo. Hide Caption 3 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang, left, poses with his parents and brother. He studied economics and political science at Brown University and went to law school at Columbia University. Hide Caption 4 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang is greeted by President Barack Obama in a White House reception room in 2012. Yang was among those honored as a "Champion of Change." He started Venture for America, a fellowship program that aims to connect recent college graduates with startups. Hide Caption 5 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Obama meets with Yang and other Champions of Change at the White House. In 2015, Obama named Yang an ambassador for global entrepreneurship. Hide Caption 6 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang appears on Bloomberg television in March 2018, months after starting his presidential campaign. He talked on the show about his goal to institute a universal basic income for all American adults. Hide Caption 7 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang In August 2018, Yang takes a selfie with an attendee of the Democratic Wing Ding event in Iowa. Hide Caption 8 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang helps man the grill at the Iowa State Fair. Hide Caption 9 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang meets with union leaders in Iowa. Hide Caption 10 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang and his wife, Evelyn, walk with their two sons. Hide Caption 11 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang meets with local Democrats in Sioux City, Iowa, in February 2019. Hide Caption 12 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang "We are undergoing the greatest economic transformation in our history, and we are dealing with it by pretending nothing is happening," Yang wrote in a CNN op-ed in April 2019. Hide Caption 13 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang talks to audience members in Washington during a CNN town hall moderated by Ana Cabrera in April 2019. Hide Caption 14 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang answers a question during the first Democratic debates in June 2019. Hide Caption 15 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang and former Vice President Joe Biden talk backstage at the CNN Democratic debates in July 2019. Hide Caption 16 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang enjoys a corn dog at the Iowa State Fair in August 2019. Hide Caption 17 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang breaks down in tears at a forum about gun safety in August 2019. He became emotional when discussing gun violence prevention with a woman who said she lost her daughter to a stray bullet. Hide Caption 18 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang talks to journalists following a town-hall meeting in Pella, Iowa, in January 2020. Hide Caption 19 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang takes a photo with an audience member as he arrives at an "Our Rights, Our Courts" forum in Concord, New Hampshire, in February 2020. Hide Caption 20 of 21 Photos: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang Yang speaks during an event in Manchester, New Hampshire, in February 2020. Hide Caption 21 of 21

Yang launched his campaign in 2017 to little fanfare. Even his family, Yang told CNN, asked "president of what" when he told them he had decided to run for the top job. But the businessman, by championing unique policy positions like a universal basic income, wide reaching programs to address automation and the legalization of marijuana, slowly created a devout following of liberal Democrats, libertarians and some disaffected Republicans.

While Yang overperformed what many experts believed he would accomplish in the Democratic primary, his following was unable to propel him beyond Iowa and New Hampshire, defeats that largely thwarted the candidate's rise.

Yang leaves the race, however, with a level of power in Democratic politics that no one would have expected when he entered the contest. Members of the eponymous Yang Gang -- colorfully known as Yangsters -- are devoted to the businessman, meaning Yang's next moves in the primary will be closely watched. And scores of top Democratic operatives, after watching Yang's rise, have said in private that the businessman should have a future role in Democratic politics or a Democratic administration.

In an interview Wednesday with CNN's Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto on "Newsroom," Yang said he isn't yet publicly endorsing a candidate but that he will support "whoever the Democratic nominee is." The businessman also said he would be "honored" to be selected as a candidate's running mate.

"I'm already on the record, too, saying if I can solve these problems as someone's vice president, a member of an administration -- we just need to start solving these problems for the next generation," Yang said. "And I'm happy to do my part."

Yang's campaign was defined by the candidate's happy go-lucky style -- videos of him singing in a church choir, dancing to the "Cupid Shuffle" and crowd surfing at an events regularly went viral, helping burnish his image as a candidate just happy to be with his fans.

He also often used high profile moment to compliment his opponents. When former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke dropped out and before a Democratic debate where they would have been standing next to each other, Yang simply tweeted, "I miss Beto." After Cory Booker failed to qualify for a debate stage, Yang used yet another debate stage moment to tell voter he thinks, "Cory will be back," a move that was appreciated by Booker and his top campaign aides.

Those moments paid off to Yang, too. The candidate and his team of New York-based operatives -- many of whom had little political experience -- turned those viral moments into a series of impressive fundraising hauls. The candidate raised $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2019, $10 million in the third quarter and $16.5 million in the fourth quarter, a series of impressive hauls that landed him among a number of Democratic heavyweights.

Like other candidates, though, much of that money flowed to Iowa, where Yang spent more than two weeks on a bus tour throughout the state ahead of the caucuses.

That effort made clear that Iowa was critical to Yang. His top aides felt like the candidate -- because he came from nowhere -- needed to prove he could overperform expectations in Iowa or New Hampshire to justify continuing the campaign.

That is why Yang spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads in the closing weeks of the campaign, hoping that success in Iowa -- which some defined as a top-five finish -- would give him credibility in future contests.

That credibility failed to materialize in the first two contests.

Yang -- the son of immigrants from Taiwan who was born in Schenectady, New York, in 1975 -- had no political experience before running for president. He told CNN in October that he lost all three times he ran for student government positions.

But Yang, after a brief stint at a law firm in the early 2000s, became the CEO of a test prep company and then started Venture for America, a non-profit that connects recent college graduates with start-ups. It was that experience that raised Yang's profile in Washington; in 2015, President Barack Obama named Yang an ambassador for global entrepreneurship.

Yang, like many insurgent candidates before him, leaned on non-traditional media to get attention. He became a staple on non-political podcasts, including an almost two-hour long podcast with controversial stand-up comedian and TV personality Joe Rogan, where his campaign says he first gained a national following.

It was clear by the end of Yang's campaign that his rapid rise -- and the sacrifices his family had made to allow him to run for president -- had weighed on the candidate.

Yang choked up days before the Iowa caucuses when he reflected on how far his campaign had come.

"I love Iowa," he said. "Campaigning here for the last two years has been the journey of my life. I am really glad you are going to determine the future of our country."

The comment caused Yang to visibly get emotional and cover his face.

"I was just reflecting on how far the campaign has come," Yang said the day after in Iowa. "The people have been very good to me and my family."