Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has been running an unpredictable campaign, to say the least. The outsider candidate went from a political nobody to sixth in the polls and is known for having fun on the road, from crowd surfing to skateboarding.
The 44-year-old serial entrepreneur recently continued this trend by performing Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” According to Erick Sanchez, Yang’s traveling press secretary, the songs were performed with a band put together by Friends of Children with Special Needs (FCSN) in California.
Per the FCSN website, the special education school was formed in response to struggling Chinese-American families in the Bay Area with special needs children.
“FCSN’s mission is to help individuals with special needs and their families find love, hope, respect, and support through integrated community involvement,” the mission statement reads.
Yang previously used his appearance on The View to speak about his son’s autism and how it inspired his campaign’s autism intervention policy.
“When my wife and I realized that he was autistic it was actually a huge relief because we were first time parents, and we were struggling, and we didn’t know what was normal, what wasn’t normal,” he said.
@AndrewYang performing ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ with an incredibly talented band courtesy of Friends of Children with Special Needs tonight in California. pic.twitter.com/NLk28ly3Cx
— Erick Sanchez (@erickmsanchez) October 28, 2019
According to Yang’s policy page, his goal as president is to direct the Department of Education to use information and funding to guide states to implement programs to identify and treat autistic children. In addition, he commits to destigmatizing autism and related neurological profiles.
Yang’s central campaign proposal is a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 per month, which he believes is necessary as the U.S. economy shifts due to automation. He proposes to fund this plan with a value-added tax (VAT) to funnel a small portion of the gains from Big Tech companies into his UBI program.
Yang is set to appear in the November debates and is sixth in the polls with 2.5 percent support. Per FiveThirtyEight , to qualify for the December debate, he must hit 4 percent in four DNC-approved polls or six percent in two early-state polls between October 16 and December 12. In addition, he must gain 200,000 unique donations, which must include 800 donors in at least 20 states or territories.
As of now, only Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren have met the December debate requirements. Yang has already hit the donor requirements, but none of the polling requirements. During the surveys that counted for the November debate, he hit four percent twice.
