Andrew M. Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, lawyer, and former candidate for President of the United States in the 2020 election. Originally a corporate lawyer, Yang began working in various startups and early stage growth companies as a founder or executive from 2000 to 2009. In 2011, he founded Venture for America (VFA), a nonprofit organization focused on creating jobs in cities struggling to recover from the Great Recession.
The son of immigrants from Taiwan, Yang grew up in New York. He attended Brown University and then Columbia Law School. Dissatisfied with his work as an attorney, Yang began working for various startups during the dot-com bubble before spending a decade as an executive at test preparation company Manhattan Prep, which was acquired in 2009. In 2011, Yang founded VFA, which recruits top college graduates into a two-year fellowship program at startups in developing cities across the United States. The Obama administration selected him in 2011 as a "Champion of Change" and in 2015 as a "Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship". Yang left VFA in 2017 to focus on his presidential campaign. In 2018, he authored The War on Normal People, which outlines several of his campaign's central ideas.
On November 6, 2017, Yang filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for President in the 2020 election. Yang's campaign largely focused on responding to the rapid development of automation, which is increasingly leading to workforce challenges and economic instability. His signature policy was the "Freedom Dividend," a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American adult, a response to job displacement by automation, one of the primary factors that he claims led to Donald Trump's election in 2016. He also became known for his campaign slogans, including "Humanity First", "Not Left, Not Right, Forward", and "Make America Think Harder" ("MATH"). Yang was considered a dark horse candidate; his campaign received unanticipated national attention and popularity online, with The New York Times calling Yang "The Internet's Favorite Candidate". Yang's supporters were informally known as the "Yang Gang". He qualified for and participated in all but one of the eight Democratic debates up to February 11, 2020, when he suspended his campaign after the New Hampshire primary.[1]
Early life and education
Yang was born on January 13, 1975, in Schenectady, New York.[2] His parents emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in the 1960s.[3] They met while they were both in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley.[4] His father graduated with a PhD in physics and worked in the research labs of IBM and General Electric, generating over fifty patents in his career.[5][4] His mother graduated with a master's degree in statistics.[6] She became a systems administrator at a local university,[7][8] and later became an artist.[9] Yang has an older brother, Lawrence,[7][10] who is a psychology professor at New York University.[8][9] Yang's father, uncle, and cousin also became professors.[9]
Yang grew up in Westchester County, New York, first in Somers, then in Katonah.[9][3] He played Dungeons & Dragons, piano, and tennis.[9] Yang was one of the few Asian kids in his hometown, and he later described being bullied and called racial slurs by classmates while attending public school, in part because he was one of the smaller kids in his class after skipping a grade.[9][5] In The War on Normal People (2018), he wrote, "Perhaps as a result, I've always taken pride in relating to the underdog or little guy or gal".[11] When Yang was 12 years old, he scored a 1220 out of 1600 on the SAT, qualifying him to attend the Center for Talented Youth—a summer program for gifted kids run by Johns Hopkins University—which he attended for the next five summers.[9] Yang later attended Phillips Exeter Academy, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire.[12] Yang has claimed that he was part of the 1992 U.S. national debate team and competed at the world championships in London.[9] Yang graduated from Exeter in 1992. He enrolled at Brown University,[13] where he majored in economics and political science, and graduated in 1996.[14] He then attended Columbia Law School, earning a Juris Doctor in 1999.[2]
Career
Early career
After graduating from law school, Yang began his career as a corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City. But he quickly grew dissatisfied with the work, finding it grueling and unfulfilling. Yang later described the job as "a pie-eating contest, and if you won, your prize was more pie." He began to desire a career where he would get to "build something." He left the law firm after five months, which he has called “the five worst months of my life.”[15]
In February 2000 Yang joined his office mate, Jonathan Philips, in launching Stargiving, a website for celebrity-affiliated philanthropic fundraising.[9][16][17] The startup had some initial success, but folded in 2002 as the dot-com bubble burst. Yang became involved in other ventures, including a party-organizing business.[9] From 2002 to 2005, he served as the vice president of a healthcare startup.[2]
Manhattan Prep
After working in the healthcare industry for four years, Yang left MMF Systems to join his friend Zeke Vanderhoek at a small test preparation company, Manhattan Prep. In an appearance on the podcast Freakonomics, Yang said he "personally taught the analyst classes at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley" during the 2008 financial crisis.[18] In 2006, Vanderhoek asked Yang to take over as CEO. While Yang was CEO, the company primarily provided GMAT test preparation. It expanded from five to 69 locations and was acquired by Kaplan, Inc. in December 2009. Yang resigned as the company's president in early 2012.[19][20][21] Yang later said it was during his time at Manhattan Prep that he became a millionaire.[5]
In September 2019 testimony before the New York City Commission on Gender Equity, former employee Kimberly Watkins testified that Yang had fired her because he felt that she would not work as hard after getting married. Yang has denied the allegations, saying, "Kimberly Watkins' facts about her break from Manhattan Prep are inaccurate. During my more than a decade as CEO, I have worked with many women, married and otherwise, and value their work and dedication as important to the success of any institution".[22] In an appearance on The View, Yang said, "I've had so many phenomenal women leaders that have elevated me and my organizations at every phase of my career, and if I was that kind of person I would never have had any success."[23]
In November, a former employee of Yang's at Manhattan GMAT filed a lawsuit against him for allegedly paying her less than her male co-workers and subsequently firing her for asking for a raise. Yang and another female employee at the company disputed the anonymous woman's claim that she was in an equivalent position to the male co-workers she cited.[24]
Venture for America
Following the acquisition of Manhattan Prep in late 2009, Yang began to work on creating a new nonprofit fellowship program, Venture for America (VFA), which he founded in 2011 with the mission "to create economic opportunity in American cities by mobilizing the next generation of entrepreneurs and equipping them with the skills and resources they need to create jobs".[13][25][26][27] VFA was launched with $200,000 and trained 40 graduates in 2012 and 69 in 2013, sending them to Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Providence. VFA added Columbus, Miami, San Antonio and St. Louis in 2014, with a class of 106
VFA's strategy was to recruit the nation's top college graduates into a two-year fellowship program in which they would work for and apprentice at promising startups in developing cities across the United States. Yang's book Smart People Should Build Things (2014) argues that the top universities in the country cherry-pick the smartest kids out of small towns and funnel them into the same corporate jobs in the same big cities.[29] VFA's goal is to help distribute that talent around the country and incentivize entrepreneurship for economic growth.
After 2011 VFA grew, reaching a $6 million annual operating budget in 2017,[30] and operating in about 20 U.S. cities, adding Kansas City, Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, and St. Louis.[31] VFA began running a "startup accelerator" in Detroit and launched a seed fund and an investment fund for fellows.
VFA quickly received national attention, including from the Obama Administration. In 2011, Yang was selected as a "Champion of Change, a program "[recognizing] ordinary Americans across the country who are doing extraordinary work in their communities.[26] In 2015, Yang was recognized as a "Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.[32][33]
In 2014, Yang published Smart People Should Build Things, which emphasized the importance of intelligent people becoming entrepreneurs and engaging in the startup economy, rather than pursuing more traditional careers.[34][35] Generation Startup, a documentary film about six startups in Detroit launched through the VFA program, was released in 2016. It was co-directed by Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser.[36]
In March 2017, Yang stepped down from his position as CEO of VFA, but continued to advise startups aligned to his signature policy of universal basic income throughout his presidential campaign.[25][37][38]
Net worth
Media outlets have provided several estimates of Yang's net worth: $1 million according to Forbes,[39] between $834,000 and $2.4 million according to The Wall Street Journal,[40] and between $3 million and $4 million according to Newsweek.[41]
2020 presidential campaign
The son of immigrants from Taiwan, Yang grew up in New York. He attended Brown University and then Columbia Law School. Dissatisfied with his work as an attorney, Yang began working for various startups during the dot-com bubble before spending a decade as an executive at test preparation company Manhattan Prep, which was acquired in 2009. In 2011, Yang founded VFA, which recruits top college graduates into a two-year fellowship program at startups in developing cities across the United States. The Obama administration selected him in 2011 as a "Champion of Change" and in 2015 as a "Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship". Yang left VFA in 2017 to focus on his presidential campaign. In 2018, he authored The War on Normal People, which outlines several of his campaign's central ideas.
On November 6, 2017, Yang filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for President in the 2020 election. Yang's campaign largely focused on responding to the rapid development of automation, which is increasingly leading to workforce challenges and economic instability. His signature policy was the "Freedom Dividend," a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American adult, a response to job displacement by automation, one of the primary factors that he claims led to Donald Trump's election in 2016. He also became known for his campaign slogans, including "Humanity First", "Not Left, Not Right, Forward", and "Make America Think Harder" ("MATH"). Yang was considered a dark horse candidate; his campaign received unanticipated national attention and popularity online, with The New York Times calling Yang "The Internet's Favorite Candidate". Yang's supporters were informally known as the "Yang Gang". He qualified for and participated in all but one of the eight Democratic debates up to February 11, 2020, when he suspended his campaign after the New Hampshire primary.[1]
Early life and education
Yang was born on January 13, 1975, in Schenectady, New York.[2] His parents emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in the 1960s.[3] They met while they were both in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley.[4] His father graduated with a PhD in physics and worked in the research labs of IBM and General Electric, generating over fifty patents in his career.[5][4] His mother graduated with a master's degree in statistics.[6] She became a systems administrator at a local university,[7][8] and later became an artist.[9] Yang has an older brother, Lawrence,[7][10] who is a psychology professor at New York University.[8][9] Yang's father, uncle, and cousin also became professors.[9]
Yang grew up in Westchester County, New York, first in Somers, then in Katonah.[9][3] He played Dungeons & Dragons, piano, and tennis.[9] Yang was one of the few Asian kids in his hometown, and he later described being bullied and called racial slurs by classmates while attending public school, in part because he was one of the smaller kids in his class after skipping a grade.[9][5] In The War on Normal People (2018), he wrote, "Perhaps as a result, I've always taken pride in relating to the underdog or little guy or gal".[11] When Yang was 12 years old, he scored a 1220 out of 1600 on the SAT, qualifying him to attend the Center for Talented Youth—a summer program for gifted kids run by Johns Hopkins University—which he attended for the next five summers.[9] Yang later attended Phillips Exeter Academy, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire.[12] Yang has claimed that he was part of the 1992 U.S. national debate team and competed at the world championships in London.[9] Yang graduated from Exeter in 1992. He enrolled at Brown University,[13] where he majored in economics and political science, and graduated in 1996.[14] He then attended Columbia Law School, earning a Juris Doctor in 1999.[2]
Career
Early career
After graduating from law school, Yang began his career as a corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City. But he quickly grew dissatisfied with the work, finding it grueling and unfulfilling. Yang later described the job as "a pie-eating contest, and if you won, your prize was more pie." He began to desire a career where he would get to "build something." He left the law firm after five months, which he has called “the five worst months of my life.”[15]
In February 2000 Yang joined his office mate, Jonathan Philips, in launching Stargiving, a website for celebrity-affiliated philanthropic fundraising.[9][16][17] The startup had some initial success, but folded in 2002 as the dot-com bubble burst. Yang became involved in other ventures, including a party-organizing business.[9] From 2002 to 2005, he served as the vice president of a healthcare startup.[2]
Manhattan Prep
After working in the healthcare industry for four years, Yang left MMF Systems to join his friend Zeke Vanderhoek at a small test preparation company, Manhattan Prep. In an appearance on the podcast Freakonomics, Yang said he "personally taught the analyst classes at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley" during the 2008 financial crisis.[18] In 2006, Vanderhoek asked Yang to take over as CEO. While Yang was CEO, the company primarily provided GMAT test preparation. It expanded from five to 69 locations and was acquired by Kaplan, Inc. in December 2009. Yang resigned as the company's president in early 2012.[19][20][21] Yang later said it was during his time at Manhattan Prep that he became a millionaire.[5]
In September 2019 testimony before the New York City Commission on Gender Equity, former employee Kimberly Watkins testified that Yang had fired her because he felt that she would not work as hard after getting married. Yang has denied the allegations, saying, "Kimberly Watkins' facts about her break from Manhattan Prep are inaccurate. During my more than a decade as CEO, I have worked with many women, married and otherwise, and value their work and dedication as important to the success of any institution".[22] In an appearance on The View, Yang said, "I've had so many phenomenal women leaders that have elevated me and my organizations at every phase of my career, and if I was that kind of person I would never have had any success."[23]
In November, a former employee of Yang's at Manhattan GMAT filed a lawsuit against him for allegedly paying her less than her male co-workers and subsequently firing her for asking for a raise. Yang and another female employee at the company disputed the anonymous woman's claim that she was in an equivalent position to the male co-workers she cited.[24]
Venture for America
Following the acquisition of Manhattan Prep in late 2009, Yang began to work on creating a new nonprofit fellowship program, Venture for America (VFA), which he founded in 2011 with the mission "to create economic opportunity in American cities by mobilizing the next generation of entrepreneurs and equipping them with the skills and resources they need to create jobs".[13][25][26][27] VFA was launched with $200,000 and trained 40 graduates in 2012 and 69 in 2013, sending them to Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Providence. VFA added Columbus, Miami, San Antonio and St. Louis in 2014, with a class of 106
VFA's strategy was to recruit the nation's top college graduates into a two-year fellowship program in which they would work for and apprentice at promising startups in developing cities across the United States. Yang's book Smart People Should Build Things (2014) argues that the top universities in the country cherry-pick the smartest kids out of small towns and funnel them into the same corporate jobs in the same big cities.[29] VFA's goal is to help distribute that talent around the country and incentivize entrepreneurship for economic growth.
After 2011 VFA grew, reaching a $6 million annual operating budget in 2017,[30] and operating in about 20 U.S. cities, adding Kansas City, Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, and St. Louis.[31] VFA began running a "startup accelerator" in Detroit and launched a seed fund and an investment fund for fellows.
VFA quickly received national attention, including from the Obama Administration. In 2011, Yang was selected as a "Champion of Change, a program "[recognizing] ordinary Americans across the country who are doing extraordinary work in their communities.[26] In 2015, Yang was recognized as a "Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.[32][33]
In 2014, Yang published Smart People Should Build Things, which emphasized the importance of intelligent people becoming entrepreneurs and engaging in the startup economy, rather than pursuing more traditional careers.[34][35] Generation Startup, a documentary film about six startups in Detroit launched through the VFA program, was released in 2016. It was co-directed by Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser.[36]
In March 2017, Yang stepped down from his position as CEO of VFA, but continued to advise startups aligned to his signature policy of universal basic income throughout his presidential campaign.[25][37][38]
Net worth
Media outlets have provided several estimates of Yang's net worth: $1 million according to Forbes,[39] between $834,000 and $2.4 million according to The Wall Street Journal,[40] and between $3 million and $4 million according to Newsweek.[41]
2020 presidential campaign
On November 6, 2017, Yang filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for President of the United States in 2020.[42][43] The campaign began with a small initial staff working out of an apartment owned by Yang's mother.[5] He is running on multiple slogans, including "Humanity First", "Make America Think Harder (MATH)", and "Not Left, Not Right, Forward".[44][45] Initially considered a longshot, Yang's campaign gained significant momentum in February 2019 following an appearance on the popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.[46][47][5] He has since appeared on numerous other podcasts and shows, including The Breakfast Club,[48] The Ben Shapiro Show,[49] and Real Time with Bill Maher.[50] By March 2019, Yang had met the polling and fundraising thresholds to qualify for the first round of Democratic primary debates.[47][5] In August 2019, he met the higher thresholds to qualify for the second round of Democratic debates.[51] Later, he also qualified for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth Democratic debates. Yang was unable to qualify for the January 2020 debate due to not having met a polling threshold in enough DNC Certified national polls.[52] However, he has qualified for the February 2020 debate.[53]
Yang's campaign focuses largely on policy, in what Reuters described as a "technocratic approach".[54][55] Yang regularly calls Donald Trump a symptom of a wider problem in the economy, rather than the problem itself.[56] According to The New York Times, Yang is known for doing interviews with conservative news outlets, and "although [Yang] tweets often, he almost never tweets about Mr. Trump".[57] This approach is exemplified by one of Yang's campaign slogans: "Not Left, Not Right, Forward".[54][55][57] According to a July 2019 YouGov poll, Yang was one of two 2020 Democratic candidates, along with Senator Bernie Sanders, with double-digit support among voters who voted for Trump in 2016.[58][59][60] Polling conducted by Business Insider in the fall of 2019 found that Yang had the highest net satisfaction rate among undecided 2020 general election voters,[61][62] and a November 2019 College Pulse poll found that Yang had the highest crossover support among college students of any candidate in the 2020 race, with 18% of Republican college students saying they would support Yang over Trump in the general election
Yang's campaign was known for its heavy reliance on Internet-based campaigning.[64][65][66] The campaign was also known for its popularity online, with The New York Times calling Yang "The Internet's Favorite Candidate".[67] His campaign supporters, known informally as the Yang Gang, had brought attention to his campaign on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms, through the use of memes and viral campaigning.[68][69]
Yang is at least the third American of East Asian descent to run for President of the United States, after Hiram Fong and Patsy Mink.[70][71] According to BBC, he "is one of the first and most recognizable East Asian-Americans in history to run for president".[72] He has said that he hopes his "campaign can inspire Asian Americans to be engaged in [politics]".[73]
Yang dropped out of the presidential race on February 11, 2020.[74]
Policies
In April 2018, Yang published The War on Normal People, which focused largely on Yang's domestic policies.[75][76] On Yang's campaign website,[77] more than 160 policies are listed.[78] Central to his campaign is the proposal of a monthly $1,000 "Freedom Dividend" to all U.S. citizens over the age of 18 (a form of universal basic income, or UBI) in response to worker displacement driven by technological automation.[79][80] According to Yang, the Freedom Dividend's benefits include "healthier people, less stressed-out people, better-educated people, stronger communities, more volunteerism, [and] more civic participation. There's zero bureaucracy associated with it [because there is no] need to verify whether [people's] circumstances change."[81] Citing forecasting by the Roosevelt Institute, Yang has said that the dividend "would create up to 2 million new jobs in [American] communities".[82] The Roosevelt Institute has not reviewed the policy.[83] The dividend is opt-in.[84] For those receiving welfare benefits, opting in to the dividend would replace some benefits while stacking with others.[85]
Yang proposes a value-added tax to finance the dividend and to combat tax avoidance by large American corporations.[86][87] He argues that automation-driven job displacement was the main reason Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, saying that based on data, "There's a straight line up between the adoption of industrial robots in a community and the movement towards Donald Trump."[88] Yang has said that he became a UBI advocate after reading American futurist Martin Ford's book Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, which deals with the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the job market and economy.[89] He believes UBI is a more viable policy than job retraining programs, citing studies that job retraining of displaced manufacturing workers in the Midwest had success rates of 0–15%.[90] His campaign slogan is "Humanity First", which calls attention to his belief that automation of many key industries is one of the biggest threats facing the American workforce.[91] The other important element of Yang's platform is what he calls "Human-Centered Capitalism".[92] He has clarified that while he supports "the spirit of Medicare for All", he "would keep the option of private insurance". His goal is to "demonstrate to the American people that private insurance is not what [they] need" and that Medicare for All is "superior to [their] current insurance".[93] His policy proposal however does not commit to Medicare for all, nor does it contain a public option, and focuses instead on reducing costs and eventually expanding coverage.
Yang supports the implementation of "democracy dollars", where citizens receive $100 each year, "use it or lose it", to give to candidates. The policy aims to drown out corporate money resulting from political lobbying and Citizens United v. FEC.[98][99] He proposes to end partisan gerrymandering,[100] supports ranked-choice voting,[101] and wants to lower the national voting age to 16.[102] Yang supports the legalization of cannabis and the decriminalization of opioids (including heroin) for personal use, but does not support legalizing or decriminalizing cocaine. He has cited Portugal's drug policy as evidence of the effectiveness of his own policy.[103] Yang supports a carbon tax and bringing the U.S. back into the Paris Climate Agreement.[104] He supports nuclear power and wants to invest in thorium-based nuclear power.[78] He supports legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and has pledged to appoint pro-choice judges.[105] Yang has proposed creating a department focused on regulating the addictive nature of media, appointing a White House psychologist, making Election Day a national holiday, and, to stem corruption, increasing the salaries of federal regulators but limiting their private work after they leave public service.[106] He supports legalizing online poker in all 50 states, the "first legitimate candidate" to do so according to Card Player
Yang has said that Israel "is a very, very important ally".[108] In regard to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Yang wants a "two-state solution that allows both the Israeli and Palestinian people to have sovereign land and self-determination". He has called Iran a "destabilizing force in the region",[109] but supported Obama's Iran nuclear deal.[110] Yang has criticized China's treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority and China's "more aggressive stance throughout the region, whether towards Hong Kong, Taiwan, or in the South China Sea".[111] He also voiced support for the 2019 Hong Kong protests.[112]
Yang has opposed U.S. military support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen[113] and has backed a more aggressive policy toward Russia: "Russia is our biggest geopolitical threat, because they've been hacking our democracy successfully."[114] Yang wrote to the Council on Foreign Relations: "Russian aggression is a destabilizing force, and we must work with our allies to project a strong and unified face against Russian expansionism. [...] we need to expand sanctions against Russia, and Putin and members of his government specifically through the Global Magnitsky Act, in order to pressure the country to play by international rules."[109] Yang has said that the U.S. has tampered with foreign elections—just like Russia has—and that Russian interference "has to stop, and if it does not stop we will take this as an act of hostility against the American people".[115]
Endorsements
Yang received endorsements or explicit expressions of support from officials such as Steve Marchand,[116] Evan Low,[117][118] and Mike Honda,[119] as well as individuals including Elon Musk,[120][121] Casey Neistat,[122] MC Jin,[123] Chris Jericho,[124] Anita Baker,[125] Sam Altman,[126] David S. Rose,[126] Tony Hsieh,[127] James Felton Keith,[128] Eliot Horowitz,[126] China Mac,[129] Ethan Klein,[130] Kirsten Lepore,[131] Stephen Sean Ford,[132] Greg Ellis,[133] Marcellus Wiley,[134] Simu Liu,[135] Joe Wong,[136] Daniel Negreanu,[137] Faraz Jaka,[138] Leslie Smith,[139] Andy Stern,[140] Philip Wang,[141] Tommy Chong,[142] Dominique Wilkins,[143] Eugene Gu,[144] Bobby Kim,[145] Mark Schultz,[146] Adam22,[147] Christina Hoff Sommers,[148] Peter Boghossian,[149] Lloyd Ahlquist,[150] Jason Starr,[151] Chance the Rapper,[152] Antonio Bryant,[153] DJ Many,[154] Chris Messina,[155] YTCracker,[156] Dan Price,[157] Elijah Daniel,[158] Hoodie Allen,[159] Donald Glover,[160] Teri Hatcher,[161] Dane Dehaan,[162] Steven Yeun,[163] Ken Jeong,[164] Dave Chappelle,[165] and Ken Bone.[166]
Yang also received campaign donations from Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, actors Nicolas Cage and Noah Centineo, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo,[167] and Internet personality Ryan Higa.[168]
Fundraising
On March 11, 2019, Yang announced that he surpassed the fundraising threshold of 65,000 donors, qualifying him to participate in the first round of Democratic primary debates.[169] On June 28, he announced that he reached 130,000 donors,[170] which met the fundraising criterion for the third round of debates.[171]
In the first quarter of 2019, Yang raised $1.7 million, of which more than $250,000 came from "the last four days of the quarter".[172] According to Yang's campaign, "the average donation was $17.92" and "99% of the donations were less than $200".[172] In the second quarter, Yang raised $2.8 million.[173] The campaign stated that 99.6% "of its donors were small-dollar donors [who] gave less than $200".[173] On August 13, 2019, Yang's third-quarter fundraising reached $2.8 million, matching his total second-quarter fundraising.[174] On August 15, he reached 200,000 unique donors.[175] On August 17, Yang announced that among his campaign donors, "the most common jobs are software engineers, teachers, drivers, retail workers and warehouse workers" and the "biggest employer is the US Army".[176] On September 1, he announced that the average donation was $25, and that the campaign had received no corporate political action committee (PAC) money.[177] In the 72 hours after the third debate, Yang's campaign raised $1 million, suggesting that it "is on track to raise significantly more in the third quarter" than in the second quarter, according to Politico.[178]
In the third quarter, Yang's campaign raised $10 million, representing a 257% quarterly increase—the largest growth rate among the fundraising numbers of all candidates.[179] The average donation was around $30, and 99% of the donations were $200 or less.[180]
In the fourth quarter, Yang's campaign raised $16.5 million. During his entire 2020 campaign, he received donations from about 400,000 unique donors, with 75% of donations coming from "small dollar" donors who gave $200 or less.[181]
Democratic debates
First debate
As of June 28, 2019, Yang had received donations from more than 130,000 individual donors in at least 20 U.S. states, thereby meeting at least one of the requirements to be included in the first and second debates for Democratic presidential primary candidates, as well as the donor requirement for the third and fourth debates.[182] The Democratic National Committee randomly determined that Yang would participate in the second night of the first debate, which took place in Miami on June 27.[183][184]
During the debate, Yang was asked only two questions and allowed to speak for two minutes and 56 seconds, the least time of any candidate.[185] He claimed that his microphone malfunctioned, initially suggesting to the debate moderators that technical difficulties might have occurred. An NBC spokesperson said, "At no point during the debate was any candidate's microphone turned off or muted",[186][187] but Yang and his supporters have provided video evidence they claim shows Yang speaking up but not being heard.[188]
Second debate
During the second debate in Detroit on July 31, Yang answered questions on topics including civil rights, healthcare, immigration, party strategy, climate, and the economy.[189][190] He spoke for a total of 8.7 minutes, which was again the least of any candidate on either night. He was the only second-night candidate who did not spend any time in "back-and-forths" with other candidates.[191] Yang drew attention for his decision to not wear a necktie in either debate.[192][193] In his closing statement, Yang called out the media and the debate format, saying:[194][195][196]
You know what the talking heads couldn't stop talking about after the last debate? It's not the fact that I'm somehow number four on the stage in national polling. It was the fact that I wasn't wearing a tie. Instead of talking about automation and our future, including the fact that we automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs—hundreds of thousands right here in Michigan—we're up here with makeup on our faces and our rehearsed attack lines, playing roles in this reality TV show. It's one reason why we elected a reality TV star as our president! We need to be laser-focused on solving the real challenges of today, like the fact that the most common jobs in America may not exist in a decade, or that most Americans cannot pay their bills. My flagship proposal, the Freedom Dividend, would put one thousand dollars into the hands of every American adult. It would be a game-changer for millions of American families. If you care more about your family and your kids more than my neckwear, enter your zip code at yang2020.com and see what a thousand dollars would mean to your community! I have done the math. It's not left, it's not right, it's forward—and that is how we're going to beat Donald Trump in 2020.
In a September interview with Politico, Yang further clarified his stance on candidates attacking each other at the debates. According to Yang, there "is this sense of manufactured outrage and rehearsed attack lines", and as "a proxy for the American public", he finds "the process to be very false and somewhat misdirected".[197]
"It's not left, it's not right, it's forward" has been compared to a similar slogan used by the Green Party of Canada.[198] On August 8, Yang received 2% support in the fourth qualifying poll, thus meeting both qualification criteria for the third debate.[199]
Third debate
The third debate was held in Houston on September 12.[200] In his opening statement, Yang promised to "give a Freedom Dividend of $1000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families".[201] During the debate, he addressed topics including healthcare, immigration, foreign relations, the War on Terror, corporate lobbying, and education and charter schools.[202][203] Yang spoke for a total of 7 minutes 54 seconds, which was again the least time of any candidate.[204]
Some campaign-finance experts have questioned using campaign funds for payments such as Yang promised in his opening statement, on the grounds that federal law bars personal use of campaign funds.[205] But Yang has said that he consulted lawyers about the proposal and that "he would not gain the same scrutiny if he gave money to a media company or consultants" instead of directly to Americans.[206] On September 12, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced on Twitter his support for Yang's proposal and offered to finance it.[207] On September 13, tech entrepreneur Justin Sun pledged to give $1.2 million to 100 Americans in 2020, saying that he wanted "Yang to help him select the recipients".[208] In the 72 hours after the debate, Yang's campaign raised $1 million and collected "more than 450,000 email addresses from people who entered the online raffle", of which over 90% were new email addresses.[178]
Fourth debate
The fourth debate was held on October 15 in Westerville, Ohio.[209] During the debate, Yang discussed topics including impeachment, automation, the economy, taxation, foreign policy, the opioid crisis, big tech, and personal data as a property right,[210] speaking for 8 minutes and 32 seconds, the fourth-least time of any of the 12 candidates.[211] He proposed decriminalizing opioids, a stance candidate Beto O'Rourke agreed with.[212] Candidates Julian Castro and Tulsi Gabbard said Yang's Freedom Dividend policy "was a good idea, and something they would consider if elected president", while candidate Cory Booker argued that a $15 minimum wage was superior to UBI.[213] Yang also spoke about the potential impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, saying he supports impeachment, but that "we should not have illusions that impeaching Donald Trump will, one, be successful or, two, erase the problems that got him elected in 2016."[214]
Vox called UBI one of the winners of the debate, saying that Yang's campaign "has already elevated the idea in [American] policy discourse".[215] CNN's Chris Cillizza called Yang one of the winners of the debate, writing that he had had a "remarkable rise in this race" and "is already having a significant impact on the conversation within the Democratic Party".[216] The New York Post also labeled Yang a winner, writing that he "knows how to break through by speaking like a regular person".[217] On Twitter, Meghan McCain praised Yang for starting the conversation on automation, calling it "incredibly impressive".[218]
Fifth debate
The fifth debate was held on November 20. Yang spoke for a total of 6 minutes 43 seconds, the least time of any candidate.[219] He discussed topics including artificial intelligence, foreign policy, child care, and combating white supremacy.[220]
Critics of the debate noted that it took over 30 minutes for the moderators to let him speak. Yang's short total speaking time and the long period of time before he was brought in sparked accusations from critics, including fellow candidate Tulsi Gabbard, that debate hosts MSNBC and The Washington Post suppressed Yang's speaking time.[221][222][223] The incident sparked protests outside of the debate studio from Yang supporters, who chanted "MSNBC, hands off our democracy!".[224]
During the debate, Yang said that climate change and artificial intelligence were among his top priorities. On Twitter, Glenn Greenwald said: "Yang's answer about the actual threats of the 21st century was way too smart, thoughtful and substantive for cable news and presidential political generally. Few things will affect humanity more than Artificial Intelligence in this century."[225] CNN's Chris Cillizza listed Yang among the debate's winners, saying that he "came across as, by far, the most relatable candidate on the stage".[226] Chris Churchill of Times Union wrote: "The other candidates blabbered on about millionaires and billionaires or the bad man in the White House while Yang, bless his heart, repeatedly turned the focus to families and children."[227] Dana Brownlee of Forbes called Yang's closing statement a "Mic Drop Performance" and "refreshing and riveting".[228]
Sixth debate
In qualifying for the December debate, Yang met the donor requirement by August 15.[175] By December 10, he had received the four required polls, becoming the seventh candidate and the only candidate of color to qualify for the debate.[229]
The debate was held on December 19 in Los Angeles, California.[229] Yang spoke for 10 minutes 56 seconds, the least time of any candidate. He discussed issues including foreign policy, the economy, climate change, impeachment, immigration, human rights, and racial equality.[230] CNN's Chris Cillizza named Yang one of the winners of the debate, saying that "Yang's answers on any question he was asked were miles away from how his rivals answered them".[231] Dylan Scott of Vox praised Yang's performance, saying that he "nailed his answer on being the only nonwhite candidate on stage" and that he "made a short and eloquent case" for the Freedom Dividend.[232]
Seventh and eighth debates
For the seventh debate in January 2020, Yang met the donor threshold but not the polling requirement.[233] Yang suggested that the DNC commission additional polls in an attempt to increase the diversity of candidates, but the committee responded that it would "not sponsor its own debate-qualifying polls of presidential candidates during a primary", citing the established practice of using independent polling for qualification.[234]
On January 26, Yang qualified for the eighth debate, which was held in New Hampshire on February 7.[235]
Andrew Yang dropped out of the 2020 presidential race on February 11, 2020, after disappointing results from the New Hampshire primary.[236] He later tweeted an image stating "I stand before you today and say that while we did not win this election, we are just getting started.
