With 20 democrats running to contest President Trump in the 2020 election, the American people are overloaded with candidates. Varying between establishment politicians, new breed Democratic Socialists and an array of single issue campaigners. In November of 2017, entrepreneur Andrew Yang announced his campaign for the democratic nomination, with his platform focusing on a push for Universal Basic Income, job displacement and Medicare for All.
His campaign has been a series of interesting developments. Starting from unknown obscurity, Andrew Yang now is polling at 4% across multiple media outlets by focusing on an internet-based campaign, reaching across the political spectrum and taking voters from candidates across political ideologies. He sets himself as an evidence based pragmatic trying to achieve societal change on how Americans view Capitalism, government spending and our obligations to each other.
What I find especially interesting on his candidacy is the media coverage his campaign generates vs. what they receive. By focusing his efforts to the Internet, he has fostered a growing social media following, catalyzed by an appearance on the YouTube podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience“. Voters from across the political spectrum were able to find his message and now his coalition extends across the political spectrum. His treatment from traditional media sources have been contentious at best. His campaign and supporters have claimed several times the media has suppressed his campaign, from not including him in polling rankings where he has polled higher than other candidates featured to his mic being cutout during the presidential debates. Through this blog I hope to assess the validity of these claims while also exploring his policy plans how his candidacy effects the overall political landscape.
