Andrew Yang Says His Campaign Will Free U.S. Government From ‘Lobbyists And Moneyed Interests’
Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang took to Twitter Sunday to tout his campaign’s grassroots support and suggested that it’s necessary to break the pattern of mega-donors and corporations influencing elections with an unlimited supply of money.
“This campaign is truly of the people — the highest percentage of small dollar donors ($25 on average) and no corporate PAC money,” he tweeted.
“It will take a campaign like this one to free our government from lobbyists and moneyed interests. #YangGang is grassroots democracy in action.”
Per Yahoo News, the 44-year-old serial entrepreneur’s campaign has transformed him from a political nobody that was painted as a novelty candidate to sixth place in the Democratic presidential field ahead of Senator Cory Booker and former congressman Beto O’Rourke.
As for combating the influence of the wealthy on U.S. elections, Yang proposes to both amend the Constitution to limit the power the 1 percent have on elections and provide more power to Americans to contribute money to candidates they believe in. To accomplish the latter, Yang suggests a solution called Democracy Dollars, which is outlined in his policy page.
“Under my Democracy Dollars plan, every American would receive $100 per election cycle to donate to candidates of their choosing. This would amount to a potential $20 billion+ a year, much higher than the amount spent by these moneyed interests if even a small proportion of Americans utilize them.”
Yang claims that Seattle has used the same approach and seen great results. He pushes for the same solution to be used on a national level to push politics toward publicly funded elections.
Come September 12, Andrew Yang will be the only non-politician on the presidential debate stage https://t.co/zJTYm0J8bQ by @MichaelMathes
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 1, 2019
Per The Inquisitr, Yang — who receives some support from voters that previously supported Donald Trump — recently revealed why he thinks the President has yet to address his campaign. He said that Trump hasn’t mentioned him yet because he “knows it’s the wrong move,” adding that an attack from Trump would benefit his campaign.
Trump is known to be quick to lash out at those that betray and attack him. But thus far, Trump has yet to comment on Yang, who appears to be drawing support from some working-class people that felt left behind before the 2016 election and helped Trump secure a victory.
RealClearPolitics reports that Yang has an average of 2.5 percent support in polls, putting him in sixth place behind Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg. Although Yang received little speaking time in the first debate, he impressed during the second and is set to appear in the third and fourth on September 12 and October 15.
