Andrew Yang: Everything you need to know about the 2020 candidate

Key facts about Andrew Yang:

• Current position: n/a
• Age: 44
• Born: Schenectady, New York
• Undergraduate: Brown University
• Date candidacy announced: November 6, 2017
• Previous roles: Founder of Venture for America, Manhattan Prep CEO, Stargiving.com VP, corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell

Andrew Yang's stance on key issues:

• Universal basic income: Yang's proposal — "The Freedom Dividend" — would provide every American over 18 years old with $1,000 per month. He contends that this would grow the economy by 13 percent and increase the labor force by 4.5-5 million people. This policy stems from his belief that AI and automation will wipe out millions of jobs, and that UBI is the path to avoiding economic ruin.
• Medicare for All: Yang advocates for a single-payer health care system.
• Economy: Yang calls his economic philosophy "human-centered capitalism," advocating for a system that emphasizes metrics that measure "human well-being and fulfillment," such as standard of living, health-adjusted life expectancy, childhood success rate and social and economic mobility.
• Circumcision: In March, Yang came out against circumcision, telling the Daily Beast: "I’m highly aligned with the intactivists. History will prove them even more correct..From what I’ve seen, the evidence on it being a positive health choice for the infant is quite shaky."

Key criticisms of Andrew Yang:

• Anonymity: Yang is not well-known and will struggle to drive the conversation.
• Inexperience: He has not worked in government before.

1 fun thing about Andrew Yang:

• He says he rebranded universal basic income to the "Freedom Dividend" because it tests better with conservatives.

Go deeper:

Everything you need to know about the other 2020 candidates

The fringe right's obsession with Andrew Yang