This Is Andrew Yang’s Moment
The Darren Aronofsky directed campaign ad, which served as announcement for Yang’s candidacy as Mayor for New York, was a surreal moment for Yang supporters. Seeing the intimate cutaway of Yang playing the piano in front Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel, elicited chills for me and while it was certainly a peculiar visual, it felt oddly comforting and reflective of the dystopian feel in the world that we’re currently living in right now. The ad felt like an organic continuation of the populist spirit, which Andrew Yang campaigned with, only this time he was here to serve a town where he has lived for 25 years.
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He was a front-runner from the very beginning of the race and NY politicos were quick to attribute the early lead to name recognition, but as the mayoral race has gone on, Yang’s lead has only been growing. The latest official polling for the NYC mayoral race was conducted on the 24th of March by Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics, with Yang leading with 16% and with half of the Democratic voters saying that don’t know who they’re voting for yet. This poll could possibly be an outlier considering polling either done by Emerson, Yang’s internal polling, or a previous Fontas poll had Yang from 25%-32% during his campaign.
Yang has a well-seasoned staff now with Chris Coffey of Tusk Strategies, as a co-campaign manager, and Sasha Ahuja, a Team Member at August Public Inc. So with a competent staff along with endorsements from State Assemblyman Ron Kim, NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres, Yang had a hot start to his campaign.
Yang entered the race later than his fellow candidates for mayor. He announced his entry into the race mid-January, although his run was highly anticipated. Stringer announced his run in September, Wiley entered the race in October, both McGuire and Eric Adams entered the race in December and got a head-start when it came to fundraising, so Andrew Yang’s fundraising prowess was truly on display when the campaign reported that he accrued $2.1 million since January 12th.
When writer and activist Rafael Shimunov suggested that Yang was coasting off of mere “name recognition” in a bizarre Twitter tirade, one had to laugh at this claim. If that were the case, the gaffes would’ve capsized this campaign, Yang wouldn’t be leading in the polls, and he wouldn’t be fundraising the way he currently is. While, personally, I would love it if Yang stopped being less impulsive when he tweets, but he knows how to get media attention without even trying to get media attention.
He’s trademarked a message in his campaign and that message is simply what Joe Biden’s message was for America, “Build Back Better.” Many people have described him as a cheerleader, who will help New York City come back. He’s always out in the streets meeting with leaders, volunteers, and stopping to chat with people. He’s branding himself as an accessible public servant and an everyday New Yorker, who just wants the best for the city.
Ross Barkan, a columnist for The Guardian and a Nation Contributor, has probably had the most accurate commentary regarding Yang and his so-far successful run for mayor. Barkan tweeted on April 1st,” Yang is wrong on plenty of policy stuff — casino idea is dumb, tax breaks to not do remote work is wrong — but he’s way better at campaigning and meeting human beings in person and not coming off petty all the time.”
This tweet was referring to Andrew Yang’s presence at the Yankees’ season opener. He was the only mayoral candidate to attend and mingle with the people. This was a move that set him apart from the other candidates whose policy differences are minor and their respective brands not all that different. This can also be highlighted with Andrew Yang’s experience talking to, Suriya, who runs a food pantry in Brooklyn.
Suriya tweeted on March 30th regarding her experience with Yang,” For those who are being negative… I run the pantry and was ever so grateful for his help this morning. He was just present, not boastful or political. He brings kind energy. I’ve seen those who promote themselves for ego… he is not one of them. Be blessed everyone.”
With the high rise of anti-Asian violence, people have been turning to Yang for his thoughts on the shooting in Atlanta, or the numerous murders and assaults that have occurred in NYC, as well as the country in general. I cannot personally write about Yang’s view on race because it isn’t simply my place as a white person. Some of my AAPI friends have expressed openly that they wished he was a little more woke and that his piece in The Washington Post was a disaster. He talked to Benny Luo, who writes for Next Shark, and told him that the “op-ed fell short” and didn’t mean to suggest that Asian Americans needed to prove how American they are. Those same aforementioned friends have seen growth in Yang, especially in light of the gruesome violence against AAPI people.
In a presser that was hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton that took place shortly after the shootings in Atlanta, Andrew Yang addressed the audience with audible pain in his voice,” I’ve been Asian all my life, and I remember vividly growing up with this constant sense of invisibility, mockery and disdain.” Yang continued with solemnity,” A sense that you cannot be American if you have an Asian face. But this has metastasized into something new and deadly and virulent and hateful.”
Given his current momentum, it is Andrew Yang’s race to lose. His current formula is working great. He’s leveraging the power of his celebrity endorsements efficiently, like having Mc Jin stoke people’s nostalgia by releasing a Freestyle Friday-worthy campaign song for Andrew Yang, which has garnered over a million views on Twitter. There was several article devoted to Andrew Yang’s kidney stone, bodega-gate, chicken soup-gate, among other things, which wouldn’t be considered newsworthy under any other circumstances.
His opponent are still playing small ball by resorting to weak and petty attacks that don’t stick. Among the most odious attacks was Maya Wiley calling Yang “Mini-Trump” which wreaks of utter desperation and tells us that she’s running out of moves in her playbook. The primaries are less than 80 days away and if Yang’s opponents continue fighting like this, then his win will be inevitable. It’s hard to articulate why Andrew Yang’s campaign is going so well, but it’s obvious he’s listening to the people, he’s making the right enemies such as De Blasio and James Dolan, and small business, cash relief, and the under-banked make up most of his campaign rhetoric.
I think Yang has kind of followed the lead of people like Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Sherrod Brown where he talks more moderately to be more accessible and plans to operate progressively. There’s a reason why he received Ron Kim’s endorsement, despite Ron Kim’s initial hesitance and there are certainly policies to point towards, which makes the progressive case for Yang as mayor, although Morales is currently occupying some of that lane, although she’s not getting the cash flow to become competitive. So Yang’s universal appeal coupled with name recognition is doing wonders for him right now among other things I’ve highlighted here that have materialized this moment for Andrew Yang.
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