2020 hopeful Andrew Yang talks to The State about reaching black SC voters, Trump
As a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Andrew Yang told The State on Friday that he knows there is more work to do to garner support from the state’s key African American voters, who make up two-thirds of the state Democratic Party’s primary voting bloc.
That and more came out of The State’s nearly 35-minute interview Friday with the 44-year-old entrepreneur, best known as a presidential candidate for his proposal of the $1,000 monthly “Freedom Dividend.”
(Yang’s responses have been shortened for length, and the questions are not in order of how they were asked during the interview.)
What is your strategy for South Carolina moving forward?
“Well, the great thing is we’re at 4% right now in South Carolina and rising very, very fast. ... And people in South Carolina are just tuning in. So, we have an incredible team here on the ground. We’re opening offices. ... And, just as people are tuning in, we’re growing. So, we’re going to be investing in people here in South Carolina. I’ll be here a lot. And as people hone in on this election and find out about me and my vision for our communities, we’re just going to grow and grow every single day and week here in South Carolina.”
Do you feel like you could be doing a better job selling your message to black S.C. voters?
“I need to do a much better job. We all do of reaching the black community here in South Carolina. And I was just in Atlanta for the last debate and I was stunned that we did not talk about the work and legacy of Martin Luther King while we were in his birth place. What he was fighting for in the last several years of his life was a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. ... So, the goal to me has to be to say to the black community here in South Carolina, that unfortunately the work of Martin Luther King has been sanitized, where we celebrate his birthday every single year but we do not try and move his vision forward toward a more economically just society.”
In South Carolina, how do you compete with a former vice president who has large black voter support and now two billionaires who can spend a lot of money on staff and digital advertisements?
“First, I’m just going to share a joke. Trevor Noah (host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central) yesterday (Thursday) on his show, said that Andrew Yang should just talk about how he was one of Obama’s ambassadors of entrepreneurship all the time. ... I was an appointee in the Obama administration. Joe Biden’s very popular here in part because of his association with the Obama administration. I’m very proud to have played a role in that administration. But, most of the voters here are just getting to know most of the people in the field. Joe Biden’s lead here is in part because of his deep familiarity to the voters. And so there are different ways that we can make me and our campaign more familiar to voters here. It’s going to require a little bit more heart and sweat. We aren’t going to be able to pull a Bloomberg and just dump millions of dollars and putting my face all over everyone’s TV. But I’m very confident that as people become more familiar with my candidacy, our support here will just grow and grow.”
Why don’t you talk more about the Obama factor?
“I’m very proud of it. Maybe it’s just not my style to run around ... trumpeting that fact. And also, I would openly admit that my role in the administration is like nowhere near like Joe’s.“
Is there a generational struggle going on in the Democratic Party?
“I think that unfortunately, to the extent there’s a generational divide, it shows up in the structure of our federal government. Think that the average age of a legislator in D.C. is in their 60s. And there’s a sense we all have that Washington D.C. is decades behind the curve because it is decades behind the curve. ... There’s a generational divide between Washington D.C. and the rest of the country and that is playing out in many ways in the Democratic field, where you have three people in their 70s that have built up decades long familiarity with voters ... and building up their political currency. And it’s been very, very hard for people of other generations to break through in the same way because for better or for worse, and I would suggest it’s probably not a good thing, that the generation that’s been in control of Washington D.C. for a while it just an older generation.”
Do you think you’re the best candidate to go up against Trump on a debate stage?
“I’m ideally suited to beat Donald Trump. I’m already peeling off thousands of disaffected Donald Trump voters who are disappointed in him. ... And here’s what goes wrong for Democrats on the debate stage with Donald Trump, Donald Trump gets up and is all bluster and performance and then the Democrat either tries to fight fire with fire or is indignant. ... A lot of Americans don’t actually find that to be that compelling a response. I’m a different character, where his biggest attacks on the government bureaucracy and the machines don’t work on me, because I’m like him, except I’m a real entrepreneur. I’m not a marketing charlatan and a fraud like Donald Trump. And when he is all bluster and braggadocio, I can laugh at him. I can ridicule him. I can just present a very sharp contrast between someone who’s trying to solve the problems of the American people and improve our lives and someone who I think most Americans have concluded doesn’t have our interests at heart.”
In South Carolina, what will we be seeing you do in the weeks ahead?
“We just had a convening of the folks who’ve been receiving the Freedom Dividend from us over the last number of weeks and months. You’re going to be seeing more of that here in South Carolina ... in the days ahead. ... Because most people need to see it in real life to understand it and believe in it and appreciate it.”
What would the first 100 days of a Yang administration look like?
“Unfortunately, Donald Trump has left us a lot to do. And so, one of the first things you’d want to do is reverse some of the more egregious abuses in this administration. Some of the things that come to mind are clearly the policies at the border, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the lack of enforcement of a lot of the regulations around workplace safety and environmental progress. But we all know that after I win the presidency, it’s going to be because of the Freedom Dividend. It’s going to be because of a vision of an economy that works for us. And the great thing is that after I’m inaugurated at 2021, the Democrats will be so excited to have beaten Donald Trump, they will know that putting a dividend into our people’s hands will make families and children and communities stronger, healthier, mentally healthier, less stressed out, will improve graduation rates.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
