Tech entrepreneur and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has been making a bold claim at recent political stops in New Hampshire — a claim that he’s gaining unexpected support from tens of thousands of President Donald Trump supporters.
According to MSN , Yang, who was once an unknown in a vast field of Democratic politicians with existing name identification, has been on a tear with his fundraising efforts and viral brand spread thanks to his supporters, who call themselves the “Yang Gang.” Most recently, Yang said at a New Hampshire rally that he’s “peeling off tens of thousands of disaffected Donald Trump voters.”
At least some of Yang’s new support base are self-described Trump supporters and they’ve even been showing up to hear the Democratic candidate speak at various campaign stops.
New Hampshire voter Anthony Hegstrom, who described himself as a Trump supporter and voter, said he’s interested in Yang as an outsider candidate, explaining that many of the other Democratic candidates are too far left or have too much time in the game.
“Most of what’s there right now is way too far left or too typical mainstream. Biden’s just the same old story and I voted for Trump for the idea that it’s something different,” he said.
Hegstrom also said he’s likely to vote for Trump in 2020 if Yang doesn’t manage to become the Democratic Party’s nominee.
Lifelong conservative and Trump supporter Russell Peterson warned Democrats that they’re on the same losing track as they were in 2016 if they don’t select someone such as Yang as their candidate.
“If the DNC was smart they would wise up,” said Peterson. “There’s nobody talking like Andrew Yang is talking.”
Yang, who has managed to beat a number of his well-known opponents like Sen. Cory Booker and former Texas lawmaker Beto O’Rourke in the fundraising realm, is having trouble in the polling department — a crucial metric that will make or break the candidate when it comes to meeting criteria set forth by the Democratic National Committee for future debate qualifications.
According to the RealClearPolitics rolling average, Yang sits at 3.5 percent. Though a recent Emerson poll gave him one of his highest numbers to date at 8 percent support.
What’s not helping his polling numbers and overall name recognition, as previously reported by The Inquisitr , is that he’s seemingly being snubbed by mainstream media networks regarding his accomplishments. The most recent case happened on CNN when the network excluded him from a chart showing how much each candidate raised in the third quarter. Showing five names, Yang’s $10 million should have had him in fifth place on the chart, but instead was replaced by Booker, who only raised $6 million.
