If Yang is thinking nationally, he's dreaming. If Yang is thinking about NY State, he's onto something.
https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access_requirements_for_political_parties_in_New_YorkIn order to maintain qualified status, political parties must field candidates for governor in each gubernatorial election who win at least 130,000 votes, or 2 percent of all votes cast for the office, whichever is greater. In the event that a party's candidate for governor fails to win the requisite votes, the party must re-qualify for recognition.
New York has a "Fusion" system of politics. Candidates can be nominated by more than one party, but can only be nominated by a party not their own with the permission of the party leaders. A 130,000 threshold vote for Governor is not high, and Yang, running for Governor, could likely meet that. (Indeed, Yang could run some celebrity and get 130,000 votes for his party in 2022.) As Yang would be the chairman of his party, he'd be the man to allow for a Wilson-Pekula waiver should some Democrat desire a cross-endorsement. He would also have a ballot line with wish to either (A) sink Democrats he doesn't like or (B) run renegade Democrats in districts which are one-party and where voters, in voting for the Yang Party candidate, were well aware that they were voting for their favorite Democrat in the General Election in fact.
Doing this would make Yang a permanent power broker in Democratic Politics. The Republicans have agreed to nominate registered Conservative Party members for offices which Republicans can win, as part of keeping the Republican-Conservative alliance solid. I don't know that this is what Yang seeks to do. But it's what he COULD do.
