Andrew Yang Twitter A screengrab from the Andrew Yang crowd surfing video.
Andrew Yang has introduced a new style of voter interaction: Campaign crowd surfing. The 2020 presidential candidate posted a video showing him crowd surfing on Twitter, solidifying his “Yang Gang” crowd’s enthusiasm for his differently style of campaigning.
“Haven’t crowdsurfed in a while #YangGang @GPSofficial ?,” Yang wrote on Twitter on September 8, 2019, sharing the video, which generated more than 33,000 likes in one day and 1.2 million views. According to CNN, the crowd surfing moment came when Yang appeared at the AAPI Democratic Presidential Forum in Costa Mesa, California.
On September 7, 2019, AsAm News reported that four presidential candidates – Tulsi Gabbard, Tom Steyer, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang — had accepted invites to appear at the forum, which was hosted by Asian-American groups. According to the site, the forum was hosted by “the Asian American and Pacific Islander Victory Fund and Asian Americans Rising PAC,” and Kamala Harris’s decision not to attend was causing some waves.
Here’s the Yang crowd surfing video:
Here’s another view:
Here’s what you need to know:
Yang Touts the Fact He’s Not a Politician
Getty Andrew Yang
Andrew Yang has built a bit of a cult following with supporters dubbing themselves the “Yang Gang.” On his campaign website, Yang announces, “I’m Andrew Yang, and I’m running for President as a Democrat in 2020 because I fear for the future of our country. New technologies – robots, software, artificial intelligence – have already destroyed more than 4 million US jobs, and in the next 5-10 years, they will eliminate millions more. A third of all American workers are at risk of permanent unemployment. And this time, the jobs will not come back.”
Yang touts the fact he’s not a politician. Instead, he writes, he’s “an entrepreneur who understands the economy.” According to his website, Yang was born in upstate New York in 1975 to immigrants from Taiwan. “My Dad was a researcher at IBM—he generated 69 patents over his career—and my Mom was the systems administrator at a local university,” he writes. “My brother and I grew up pretty nerdy. We also grew up believing in the American Dream—it’s why my parents came here.”
He’s a businessman who has worked as a corporate lawyer, ran a healthcare startup, and then ran a national education company. He then founded Venture for America, which he describes as “an organization that helps entrepreneurs create jobs in cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.”
People on Twitter Had Mixed Feelings About the Crowd Surfing Video
GettyAndrew Yang
Opinions of the Yang crowd surfing video varied on Twitter. “Can this guy get anymore desperate?” wrote one non-supporter. “I can’t wait to see which candidate decides to do this next and pretend they do it all the time,” wrote another man.
Others were fans. “Godamit Yang. We f*cking love you!!!” exclaimed one fan on Twitter. “May I say you are officially cooler than @BarackObama now? #yangsurfing,” wrote another. People posted GIFs and memes.
“Goodbye old politicians. Gen X in the house,” a fan wrote. “This guy puts a smile on my face, which none of the candidates do!” wrote another.
“Nothing wrong with having fun on the campaign trail, after all what’s the point of doing something if it’s 100% serious all the time? Also here are his policies to address the mess that we’re dealing with; he has more than any other candidate ?,” a woman wrote.
Here’s a link to where Andrew Yang stands on the issues, in case you’re curious.
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