Tens of thousands of Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s supporters, known as the Yang Gang, have taken to Twitter to back the 44-year-old who failed to qualify for the 14 January Democratic debate in Iowa.
This swiftly placed the hashtag #AmericaNeedsYang to the second-most trending topic on the social media platform in the US.
Most netizens specifically clarified why Yang should have appeared on the debate stage which they noted contained only white candidates without him.
One user touted him as “the only one that has a plan to help all Americans through the fourth industrial revolution”.
“Andrew Yang knows why you may feel like everything is not alright, even when the media is telling you everything is great!”, the user added.
Others praised Yang for “actually giving thoughtful responses when he was on the stage”, lauding his solutions as “holistic”.
The Twitterstorm comes after Yang failed to gain 5 percent in at least four Democratic National Committee (DNC)-approved polls, which stopped him from appearing on the debate stage at Drake University in Iowa on Tuesday.
"The DNC set up rules this year that have made it very difficult for people to make the debate stage unless they are getting a lot of traction among large numbers of small donors (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren), have great name recognition (Joe Biden), are independently wealthy (Mike Bloomberg, Tom Steyer) and/or can attract large donors (Pete Buttigieg). [Tulsi] Gabbard is right to be frustrated, she is not the only one hurt by these rules or left off the stage (ex. Yang) and the DNC really needs to re-think them for the next election. They designed the rules to avoid the problems the RNC had with an almost equally large field in 2016, but in so doing they created challenges for viable candidates...", Dr. Jeanne Zaino, political analyst and Professor of Political Science at Iona College, says.
Yang is seen as one of the most unique candidates in a Democratic primary race. His election platform includes Medicare for All, requiring all police officers to wear cameras, paid family leave, and a call for Universal Basic Income, which he refers to as the Freedom Dividend.