In today’s America of hard line partisanship, one democrat seems to be doing the impossible: Andrew Yang (D) has increasingly been winning over Trump voters to his 2020 presidential campaign.

How, you ask? For one thing, Yang is no ordinary candidate, nor is he a politician. An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Yang is standing out by running on a platform of solutions, not problems. The core of his campaign revolves around mitigating the effects of widespread job loss that’s happening due to increased automation in America. Yang’s message resonates loudly with the Right, and has grabbed the attention of many high profile conservatives.

Tucker Carlson, of Fox News, is one of them. In an interview with Yang, he fully bought in. “I sit with my jaw open, I agree with you so strongly.”[1]

Ben Shapiro is also on board with many of Yang’s ideas following a recent interview[2]. In the comments section, viewers praised Yang’s showing: “That’s how you have a political discussion between Liberals & Conservatives.”

Yang is running on a platform of over 100 policies, but his primary focus is on one: Universal Basic Income, or UBI. It is a policy which looks to give $1000 a month to every American over the age of 18, no strings attached.

Initial reactions to UBI are dismissive, and rightly so; it sounds like yet another socialist / liberal government handout, not to mention insanely unaffordable. The reality is far from it, and those that hear Yang out often come away feeling quite differently.

“When I first heard about UBI I thought it was just an insane idea by another insane leftist trying to outclass the other dems but I chose to hear him out and I am glad I did.” * “Same, I saw tons of posts about him, then watched his JRE interview and saw he was actually the most pragmatic and intelligent of the democrat candidates.” *

The ‘JRE interview’ is Yang’s two hour sit-down with Joe Rogan[3], where Yang goes into great detail on every aspect of UBI: the cost, who would pay for it, who would abuse it, whether it would cause inflation, how it would affect unemployment, and more. If that weren’t enough, he has an even more exhaustive FAQ on his website[4].

It’s this big-picture thinking and focus on realistic solutions that’s captivated many conservatives- there are literally thousands of comments by Trump-turned-Yang voters spread across Reddit, Facebook, Youtube, many of whom believe Yang is the next step forward for America. All over the internet, you can find testimonies of how Yang’s policies are hitting home with a lot of voters: Democrats, Independents, and people who’ve never voted before.

“21 years in America and he’s gonna be my first vote ever.” ** “FINALLY. A candidate who doesn’t focus on meaningless identity politics, but rather has a HUGE plethora of meaningful socioeconomic policies based on strong facts and logic.” ** “I’m more excited for Andrew than I’ve ever been for any candidate, (including Bernie), because he’s the only one that’s ever earned that much excitement.” ***

Beyond UBI, Yang’s platform includes Medicare for All, Human-Centered Capitalism, Campaign Finance Reform, and over a hundred more[5]. Given his platform’s widespread appeal, Yang’s campaign proudly sports the slogan: