Yang visits Mt. Pleasant on southeast Iowa tour

MT. PLEASANT - Mt. Pleasant's Central Park Coffee was a packed house Saturday afternoon, not with caffeine lovers but with interested Iowan voters who came to see presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Yang spoke to a crowd of nearly 100 locals at a meet and greet that was part of his four day southeast Iowa tour. Entire families stood in the coffee shop to see the candidate, including La Phanthouvong, who brought her three sons to the event.

Phanthouvong, who works for Young House Family Services, a nonprofit based out of Burlington, explained that she 'really likes his views on mental health.”

'I feel like, especially rural Iowa, a lot of our funding is getting cut, and it's a problem. So I think with him wanting to have it in with Medicare and Medicaid, I think that's amazing,” the mother said.

Joining Yang on his trek through the state was his wife, Evelynn Yang, who introduced her husband at the event and impressed upon the crowd early into her speech that Yang's ultimate goal was to make the lives of Americans better.

'Andrew's campaign message is humanity first. He says all the time ‘it's not left, it's not right - it's forward.' … his goal would be to solve problems and improve the lives of everyday Americans,” she said, speaking in front of a wall plastered with 'Humanity First” posters.

Yang, a political newcomer, entered the run for the Democratic presidential candidacy in 2017. Before entering the race, Yang started and lead the nonprofit Venture for America, which focused on entrepreneurship.

'For most of the last decade, [he was] building coalitions in cities across the country among a wide range of businesses, people and local communities. He did this to tackle the problem of job creation and brain drain. For his accomplishments, Obama named him a champion of change,” Evelyn explained.

The framing of Yang as an economic problem solver was continued in the candidate's own address to the crowd. In his opening, Yang admitted to his lack of experience in politics, instead describing himself as 'an entrepreneur and problem solver.”

'I spent the last seven years creating thousands of jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Alabama. And while I was doing that work, I saw firsthand why Donald Trump won Iowa by eight points, why he won in 2016. He won because we blasted away 4 million manufacturing jobs,” Yang explained.

In his address, the candidate displayed his knowledge of the changing economy, painting a picture for the crowd of how automation and progressive technological advancement could lead to continued job loss for Americans, one of many 'problems that got [Donal Trump] elected in the first place.”

'We're in the midst of an economic transformation that is leaving more and more of us behind,” Yang said. Speaking specifically to the struggles of Iowans, Yang said that mechanization and consolidation started on farms and traveled to manufacturing, which he noted resulted in the loss of 40,000 jobs.

'Now it's shifting to your mainstream stores and retail districts. We have to turn the tide and rewrite the rules to work for us before it hits your highways because when it hits your highways, it's going to be disastrous for many communities,” Yang said.

One of Yang's solutions to the financial struggles Americans are facing include his proposal of a Freedom Dividend, which proves incredibly popular with supporters who showed up to see the candidate, including couple Zachary and Katie Gibson, who traveled from Missouri with their infant daughter, Zelda. The Freedom Dividend would provide a 'universal basic income of $1,000 a month … for every American adult over the age of 18,” as explained on Yang's website. The candidate explained that the universal basic income would be paid 'trillion dollar tech companies that are paying zero or near zero in taxes.”

'We're big supporters already and wanted to come see him,” Zachary said.

'The freedom dividend - I think that it's the solution. I also like how Yang is so solution oriented compared to the other candidates, he just gets right to the point,” Zachary added.

Yang's presence and ideas seem to be gaining traction throughout the country as he rises to 5th in the polls. Ann Klingensmith, a Mt. Pleasant resident, explained that she was 'very intrigued,” by the ideas the candidate presented. Being just a month out from the Iowa caucuses, Yang's tour through the state comes at a crucial time when voters are deciding who to caucus for.

'I've gone from bypassing and now I'm going to really look,” Klingensmith explained how her level of interest in Yang has changed.

'[What was most intriguing] was how well-spoken he is. He sounds like he's being really straight with us and genuine,” Klingensmith concluded.

Mt. Pleasant students Payton Lovan and Kaleb Upton echoed similar sentiments.

'He seems fun and reliable … the things he's going to do for our country if he becomes president sounds great,” Upton said.