Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang on Monday talked up his idea to give every American $100 to spend on political candidates every year as a way to curb the broader influence of money in politics.

Mr. Yang said his proposal, which he calls “Democracy Dollars,” “would wash out lobbyist cash by a factor of 8-to-1.”

“Use it or lose it — you can only use these dollars to contribute to a candidate or a campaign, and if you don’t [use] them they disappear,” he said on CNN.

“The NRA has their tens of millions of dollars. They have legislators locked up, and so the legislators feel like it’s in their self-preservation to listen to [the] NRA and not the will of the American people,” he said.

“Money talks in this country, and it’s very hard to push lobbyist money out of politics entirely,” he continued. “So what we do is we wash it out with a flood of people-powered money.”

Mr. Yang included the proposal as part of a plan to “restore democracy” that he released earlier this year.

He has pointed out that Seattle instituted something similar. In Seattle, city residents receive four $25 vouchers through the “Democracy Voucher Program” to give to local candidates, after a voter-led initiative passed in 2015.

The Seattle program, which debuted in 2017, is paid for by a $3 million-per-year property tax.

The entrepreneur is perhaps best known for his proposal to give every American a broader $1,000-per-month stipend.

His campaign said last week that Mr. Yang has hit both the polling and donation thresholds to qualify for the next Democratic presidential debate in September. The number of qualifiers is expected to be cut roughly in half compared to the 20 candidates who participated in each of the first two debates.