Good. [laughter] [applause] i have a number of jobs and , andrew will be here shortly. Were you interested in meeting the next president of the United States . [applause] good. Thats good. Coincidently, he will be here in 10 minutes or less. Hopefully, less than 10. I saw some people groan. It is going to be all right. My name is steve. If you like state or local politics, we may have crossed paths. If not, that is on me. I used to be the mayor of portsmouth, New Hampshire. And i was a candidate for governor of New Hampshire on the democratic side last year. [applause] dont clap too much. Breaking news, i did not win. [laughter] and had i won, there would be burly security people trying to intimidate you. But the good news is, i am not intimidating at all. Instead, there is a Silver Lining to what happened, because i had more free time that i hoped i would, a year ago, coincidently, today, i sat down for the first time with andrew yang for a cup of coffee in my hometown of manchester. I knew him, but i did not know much about him, to be honest. Five minutes in, i knew, at a minimum, that we were going to be friends at the end of this conversation. So he checked some boxes for me very early. Lets see, 44yearold, firstgeneration american, father of two, really likes math. Ap, that was me, that was me and we connected immediately. The balance of that hour, ended up being the moment i went from , i am going to be friends with this guy, to i think this guy , could be president. I think that would be a good thing. And then we took the next couple of months and talked politics , did some campaigning in the north country. I have family way up in pittsburgh. Betty from the anybody from there . Anybody from its ok. It is a good thing. Its beautiful up there. We took him snowmobiling. You cannot be president if you have not been snowmobiling. Early april, i became a National Advisor for him. Doing debate prep, policy, south carolina. It has been a blessing. When we connected, he was in 16th place. And after that meeting back in january, we walked down elm street where he had another , meeting. And i had just run for governor, and it was my hometown, and we bumped into some folks that i knew. And they said, hey, steve, who is your friend . He is running for president. That is my friend. Well now, we walk down elm street and folks go, hey andrew, who is your friend . And that, in my estimation, counts as progress. And all of a sudden, he is not in 16th place and a relatively anonymous guy in New Hampshire. Anybody seen any tv ads for andrew yang . Because we are paying money. Do you like that . Good. Now he is as high as tied for fourth place nationally. We raised 16. 5 million in the fourth quarter, with much more to come, and consider this, in q1, the First Quarter of 2019, the entire quarter, he raised 1. 7 million. On new years eve day, he raised 1. 3 million. That also counts as progress. [applause] one of the key moments, that i realized the light bulb went on and that this guy had a chance, late march, we did a town hall in plymouth. At the end of it, i realized i was looking at this incredibly politically ideologically , diverse crowd. I saw trump voters who were wearing it on their chest. Maga. I saw clinton voters. I saw people like me who had been bernie supporters in 2016. I saw gary johnson people and jill stein people. I saw, i am never going to vote again people. He was turning on a more diverse Ideological Coalition than i had seen in my 20 years of political activism in New Hampshire democratic politics. After the event was over, i went to one gentleman who had the classic red with white lettering, make America Great again tshirt. And i said, sir, you have just sat through an hour and a half of a young Asian American man who is trying to give every citizen 18 and older 1000 a month for the rest of their life. Have you attended the correct meeting . And his answer was a lightbulb moment. It was, hell, yeah, i am attending the right meeting. Because it turns out, at that point, after 2. 5 years of the trump administration, he realized donald trump was the wrong answer to the right question. Andrew yang was the right answer to the right question. Allf you are at intellectually curious, you are probably thinking what i thought at that moment what the heck is , the right question . And here it is. It is a question that not enough american politicians are asking. Precious few of the other Democratic Candidates are asking, and it is this. How come at a time when gdp market, high, stock record high, unemployment record inflation, record low, how can it be . We have been told our entire econ 101 class, this is dogma when these things are the , case, you should be feeling unprecedented levels of Economic Prosperity. Personal economic security. You should feel like your kids are destined for bigger and Better Things than you could have imagined. But this is also true. If you were born in the 1940s, good for you, 93 of people born there could say their children were going to have a higher standard of living than they did. If you were born in 1990s, that number is now under 50 . All these things i just told you he goes, how can all these numbers to be what they are and yet the vast majority of americans feel like they are walking on an economic tightrope, with no safety net underneath . That is the reality of America Today. And if we, i say we as a lifelong democrat, if we as a Democratic Party believe the only way, or the best way, we will beat donald trump in 2020 is to simply be the party of not donald trump, we run the risk of doing in 2020 what we did in 2016, and then acting very surprised the day after that we got the same result from the same process. The only way we win is if we present ourselves as not against things, or simply against things. I am turned on to andrew yang and his candidacy because more than any candidate i have seen in a generation, he speaks about what he is for. He defines america by what it can be rather than the worst of what we have been. That is what excites people. Excites people that may have voted for donald trump in 2016. The percentage that are open for change, they desperately want maximum change, but they now realize the change they asked for was not exactly the change they wanted. And the way we will defeat donald trump, who is an outsider who does not have his act together, will not be with an insider. It will be with an outsider who has his act together. And ladies and gentlemen, that person is andrew yang. [applause] how many of you have seen andrew speak in person before . This is not a trick question. How many of you have not seen andrew speak before . Yeah, that is what i like. And when they think andrew finds that out, it is what he is going to like. Two months ago, much less than nine months ago, when we would do events, there were two things that are true. There were a heck of a lot fewer people at the events then we get now. The second thing is, it would be 80 diehard yang gang and 20 new people. Find, and most of these audiences it is virtually a flip, 70 to 80 of people who have not seen him before, but be election. N our how many of you entering the room today as certifiably yang gang . How many of you might classify yourself, and we are all friends today, as yang curious . Yeah. Give yourself a hand for being yang curious. [applause] by the way i am becoming yang , curious as to when they are going to arrive. That is kind of a joke. Kind of. What we find in the yang gang is that we have another term for yang curious. It is soontobe yang gang. Somebody shout out for me, if you are yang curious, what has drawn you here today that might not have drawn you here in month or two ago . Our granddaughter likes him. Our granddaughter likes them. May i ask how old is your , granddaughter . Almost 18. When does she turn 18 . [laughter] hold on, folks. I need to hear this answer. March. That is great for the general. Thate as much about that, andrew yang is going to be our nominee, folks. The number of people i do not mean to offend, and i have been bald for a long time. At one point, this was a choice. Not anymore. It was, until a few months ago, the reality was that most of the folks showing up in a room like this were pretty young and quite male. And while i am a relatively young and quite male person, we had to diversify in order to grow our coalition. And what i see here are folks who are now saying, it is my kids, grandkids, they are the ones who got turned on to take a look at andrew yang. And indeed, the way that we win the election is by pulling in people that may be were not too excited, or in some peoples case, and 2016 they were not eligible to vote in 2016. Get them excited for a generation. When you get young people excited to vote, you typically keep them engaged for the rest of their lives. It is one of the reasons why andrew supports lowering the voting age to 16 years old. The data is very clear on this. When you get people involved in the voting process in their teens or 20s, you probably have them for a lifetime. And there are other elements of Civic Engagement that follow suit. All these are important and are critically locking for a sizable portion of our population. So thank your granddaughter. Where does she live . The spoting you on more than you planned. [laughter] [inaudible] pennsylvania is a swing state. I like that. I like that. Please, staff . [laughter] tell me why you are yang curious and why you are here today . [inaudible] humanity first. How many of you have heard that as part of you andrew yang . It is one of my favorite things about andrew. We need as a country to separate the concept of economic value from human value. Andrews oldest son, who is seven years old, christopher, is on the autism spectrum and was diagnosed about three years ago. You will probably hear more about that shortly. One of the questions, as i become more exposed to the conversation about autism through this campaign, is when we see a child with special needs, we often do not think very much about the fact that that will one day be an adult with special needs. And when that conversation ensues, i am amazed at how often to some extent the question immediately goes to this. So, how is your child when he or theys an adult, how are going to make a living . What kind of work will they do . And there is an implication in there that their , human value and economic value are the same. If they do not imagine them as being able to deliver economic value in a traditional way, quantifiable way, the way we have defined for generations, that somehow they have less value as a human. And that is what happens when you spend all your time thinking about gdp as a measure of success at the same time that we have seen life expectancies go down three years in a row, that we have seen suicide rates, things that measure whether we are getting it right as a society. And one of the things that got me into andrew early, he talked these real ways, and it is one of the mantras of his of humanity. Something else curiosity. ,guess what . Hold it to yourself save it for , the q a. Talk to the press after. Somebody else . I will quickly introduce, yes, somebody i have got to know over the last several days. Awesome. The best evidence that i have found that andrew yang is really smart. His wife, evelyn yang, she will be out here in a second. Firstgeneration american just , like andrew, just like me. Columbia university graduate. Accomplished in the private sector. Helping to raise their two young sons. Sophisticated. Way,ngaged and by the nobody can run for major office, take it from this guy who ran for governor, unless your family is supportive because it is an , allin effort. Evelyn is remarkably supportive, windsticated, and is the behind this campaign and so many ways. She is going to introduce the next president of the United States, which means i get to introduce the next first lady of the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, give a nice warm bedford, New Hampshire, welcome to evelyn yang. [applause] hello, everyone. Thank you, steve. Thank you for that introduction. Thank you so much for coming out today. I have only recently started joining andrew on the trail. As steve mentioned, we have two young boys at home who keep me pretty busy. But i love being here when i can. I think i am useful to andrew because after 15 years of being , together, i am his best character witness. Andrew is a wonderful husband, father, and friend. He is a man of the highest integrity. He does not lie. I have never known him to do a single unscrupulous thing, but he is far from a stick in the mud. As you can tell, he is fun and he is flexible, but he is also principled and has exceptional judgment when it comes to filtering out the things that really matter. He is generous in heart and soul and action. By the way, i took all of that from our wedding vows. I am just kidding our wedding , vows were way more generic. [laughter] but all that aside, this is why i think my husband would make a great president. It is so upsetting how divided our nation has become. Its why we cannot get anything done. Andrews Campaign Message is humanity first, that includes all of us. He says all the time, it is not left, it is not right, it is forward. His intention was loud and clear from the start. Play partisan to politics. He has never dreamed to be president , or even in politics. His goal is to solve problems and improve the lives of all americans. Now how will he accomplish this . , i can tell you about his track record, for one, of being a nonprofit leader for most of the last decade, building coalitions in cities across our country, among a wide range of people, businesses, and local communities, to help solve the problems of job creation. For his accomplishments, obama named him a champion of change and made him a president ial ambassador of entrepreneurship. I have seen andrew in action over the years time and time again. Andrew is phenomenal at building bridges and uniting different people behind the common cause, at communicating what is at stake, at setting people up to succeed. His intellect and energy are unquestionable. But he has something else. A lot of people in politics are smart. But andrew has a very unique combination of characteristics. And to put my finger on it, i would call it authenticity, transparency and humor. His humor and humility are transformative. It enables all kinds of people to want to work with him and trust him. You just cant invent this stuff if it is not genuine. That is a promise andrew would bring to the white house people , before party, common sense before ideology, and the ability to work with everyone to get things done. While 15 years ago, i may hnot i may not have thought to myself, this man is going to be president , today the very same qualities that made me fall in love with him have me absolutely convinced that he is the perfect person to lead this country in the 21st century because the , stakes have never been higher. Americans know that things are not all right. Too many people are being left behind. Too Many American families are struggling to make ends meet. We have women who are financially dependent and stuck in abusive situations. We have children who are hungry and homeless in the United States of america, where we have so much wealth concentrated in just a few places. Be acceptable to any of us. Yet andrew is the only one addressing poverty in any meaningful way. We have the ability to eradicate poverty, and i believe we have a moral obligation to do so. Of course, 1000 a month cannot solve all our problems. We as a country have a lot of big, systemic changes to work on, and if you look into any of andrews 150 plus policy proposals, you know he fully intends to do that work. But the freedom dividend is a critical first step in the right direction. It will pave the road ahead and allow millions of americans to lift their heads up, look forward, plan, save for a rainy day and hope for a brighter future. That is why i so embrace this campaign, and my husbands work putting humanity first. What humanity first means to me is investing in people first. This will supercharge our families and supercharge our communities. As andrew puts it, it is thecak trickleup economy, from our people and our communities up. Is thislly bewilders me topdown approach that all of our politicians take. Yes, you need policies and laws and regulations. But they can take a long time to go into effect, and they dont always work as intended. It is common sense you need to take a bottomup approach as well. What about putting resources directly into peoples hands so they can make the best decision for themselves and for their families . Andrew is the only one talking about tackling the greatest issues we face as a country, and a peoplecentered way. It is why the more you hear from him, the more you want to hear from him. He makes too much sense. Realize this is , what we have been missing in politics. Now, the man u have been waiting for. Please join me in welcoming the next president of the United States, my husband andrew yang. [applause] mr. Yang hello, bedford. How are you . Good afternoon. Thank you so much. I love campaigning with evelyn because now people are finding out what i have known for quite some time, which is i am the luckiest guy in the whole country. Thank you, evelyn. [applause] sometimes people thank me for running and i say, thank her. Because, number one, she let me run, and she has been taking care of our boys and sacrificing more than anyone in our family. You have been a rock and i love you so much. [applause] i love campaigning here in New Hampshire for a number of reasons. I went to high school in this state. How many of you knew that . Yeah, i graduated from Phillips Exeter academy in 1992. They had me back to speak about seven months ago and i told them , i had not been back since graduation because i did not have a good time. [laughter] and then the student body erupted in you in applause no, that islike, oh not what i was expecting. I went to Brown University and then i went to law school and became an unhappy lawyer for five months and i started a business. How many of you have started a business . If your if you have your hand up, then you know a couple of things. It is much harder