Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s campaign raised an impressive $10 million in the third quarter of 2019, which is more than triple the $2.8 million he raised during the second quarter. The 44-year-old serial entrepreneur is currently sixth in the polls and has continued to smash expectations of his unique outsider campaign that was once treated as a passing novelty.
Despite Yang’s success, he’s often had a tough time gaining attention from mainstream media outlets. He has been left out of debate promotions , candidate chyrons, and even mistakenly referred to as John Yang by MSNBC, which sparked the “WhoIsJohnYang” hashtag as well as numerous humorous memes. Now, as universal basic income (UBI) advocate and Yang supporter Scott Santens pointed out on Twitter , Yang appears to have again been excluded from a chart in favor of a poorer-performing candidate.
The chart shows Bernie Sanders with the highest third-quarter fundraising with $25.3 million, followed by Pete Buttigieg with $19.1 million, Joe Biden with $15.2 million, and Kamala Harris with $11.6 million. Yang is supposed to be in fifth place, but he is instead replaced by Cory Booker, who raised $6 million.
In a recent column for The Hill , Rising host and political commentator Krystal Ball wrote that Yang — along with other candidates with a history of media scorn and exclusion, such as Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and Marianne Williamson — is excluded because he doesn’t “fit the mold” of standard candidates and has a habit of defying the rules.
“Without fail, every candidate who has come from outside the Democratic establishment, or who has dared to question the Democratic establishment, has been smeared, dismissed or ignored by most media,” she wrote in her op-ed.
CNN: “If you’re not going to ignore @AndrewYang ‘s $10 million Q3 fundraising total, MSNBC, we certainly will. And don’t you just love how Biden’s total puts him right in the center of the screen? Gosh we love that guy. And Booker too! Bless his $6M.” #YangGang #YangMediaBlackout pic.twitter.com/RLWPKrGnyM
— Scott Santens (@scottsantens) October 3, 2019
According to Ball, candidates like Yang are a “threat to the political establishment” and thus also a threat to journalists whose careers hinge on access to the people and networks that make up the establishment’s gears.
“There may not be an edict coming down from on high to ‘destroy’ those candidates who threaten the system, but there are natural defense mechanisms that kick in. And so, strange graphics are made that just happen to exclude you, fact checks are written that don’t seem to arrive at the facts at all, coverage vacillates from total blackout to wild smears.”
As often is the case when Yang is excluded, his supporters have taken to pushing the “YangMediaBlackout” hashtag across social media to draw attention to the perceived treatment of his campaign.
Yang is currently set to take the debate stage in October and needs 3 percent or higher in one more Democratic National Committee-approved poll to qualify for the November debate.
