Yang Campaign focuses on Fundraising ahead of primary

Andrew Yang awaits his introduction ahead of a town hall at the Currier Art Museum in Manchester. Photo by Jishnu Nair

Update: As of February 11, Yang did not hit his $2 million fundraising goal. He dropped out of the presidential race later that night, saying that he did not want to accept more donations if he wasn’t sure victory would be possible.

On Andrew Yang’s 2020 campaign website, there is an animation of the former Venture for America CEO running while his donation totals add up.

As of Monday evening, his supporters, the Yang Gang, have raised over $1 million--just about half of the $2 million he needs by midnight. 

“It’s looking good, but I haven’t checked in a bit,” Yang said after a town hall at Dartmouth on Sunday.

The polling aggregator RealClearPolitics has Yang in the bottom half of the race, with an average placement of 5th place. Yang and his supporters have criticized the media and DNC for skewing or mis-reporting on his campaign, with the Schnectady native boycotting MSNBC from late November 2019 to the end of the year after a series of errors and omissions, including one graphic that identified him as “John Yang.”

Some supporters have gone further and taken aim at the Democratic National Committee. Seth Jones, the co-founder of the independent expenditure committee Humanity Forward, said that the DNC is responsible for Yang’s struggles both to establish himself as a household name and to fundraise.

“We don’t have [former New York City mayor Michael] Bloomberg money, we don’t have [California hedge fund manager Tom] Steyer money,” Jones said. “That’s a major, major, challenge.”

Others lament the timing on big-money donations which capped early, leading to a slowdown on donations at this stage of the campaign. Donors are capped at $2,800 per individual. Ellery Wolfe, 29,  a repeat Yang donor from San Diego, said he tried to stay optimistic.

“It would take a miracle for him to pull off the nomination,” said Wolfe.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit reporting institution based in Washington, D.C., just over half of Yang’s contributions come from “small” donations, which the Center defines as individual donations greater than $200 and capped at $2,800 per cycle. The campaign’s Federal Elections Commissions data shows that he has raised just under $32 million--solidly above the latest candidate to drop, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, and even above current rival Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

His numbers, however, belie the fact that his recent showings in the polls aren’t bringing in money. The data aggregator FiveThirtyEight found that Yang, who was recognized by 60% of respondents, raised slightly over $15 million during the fourth quarter of 2019. By comparison, Buttigieg, who was recognized by 70% of respondents, raised $10 million more, allowing him to outpace Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Following a poor showing in Iowa, the Yang campaign fired dozens of staffers including several policy directors. The campaign released a statement saying the move was part of a “planned restructuring” of its structure.

Yang’s online following are keeping up the calls for donations. One post in the Reddit subforum r/YangForPresidentHQ shows users how they can use referrals from the money transfer app CashApp to provide donations, allegedly without spending a dime.

Yang continues to claim that he is the best option to defeat President Donald Trump in the general election. He told reporters on Monday that his volunteers were targeting “swingable” Republicans in New Hampshire counties that Trump won in 2016.

“We did particularly well in the swing counties in Iowa, we’re going to do well here,” Yang said.

For now, the Yang Gang will watch their animated candidate jog across his website, and hope that he continues his run in real life.