Adam Wilson
Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang has found some unlikely supporters among disenfranchised Trump voters. These young, hip, internet savvy voters are often credited with creating the counter culture that propelled Trump to the presidency in 2016. Yang has one of the most comprehensive platforms of any current candidate at this point in the race, but one particular tenet of his platform attracts the interest of the aforementioned demographic; his “Freedom Dividend”, a Universal Basic Income (UBI) of $1,000 a month for anyone over the age of 18.
President Trump and Republicans at large have staked their success on opposing left wing economic policies, with the primary focus of this years Conservative Political Action Conference being economic policy. With this in mind, it seems unlikely that ex Trump supporters would endorse someone like Andrew Yang. Yang’s newly acquired supporters have made their argument through memes. One video on Twitter posted by @powerfulgood makes the argument that because President Trump has failed to bring about substantial change, his supporters may as well vote for Yang for monetary gain.
If Yang wants to become a first tier candidate, and even further, win the Democratic primary, he will have tough competition. As of right now, there are 24 candidates in the primary who have declared or are likely to throw their hat in the ring. Most articles that have ranked candidates in order do not even put Yang in the top ten, however, he is already closer than most candidates to making it on the debate stage. Last month, the DNC announced that candidates would need 100,000 unique donors to make it on the debate stage. As of today, Yang needs less than 10,000 donors to meet this threshold.
Already, many prominent pro Trump pundits who identify with his populist base have jumped on the YangGang bandawagon; from Nicholas Fuentes to Faith Goldy. Some of Trump’s most ardent supporters early on in the Presidential primary have jumped ship in an attempt to hold him to account for failing to fulfill many of his key promises. President Trump has lashed out at his right wing critics, including conservative political pundit Ann Coulter. Just today the President called her a “wacky nut job” and said that despite her complaints, he was “winning on the border”.
