Ok. How are you doing today . Good. [laughter] [applause] i have a number of jobs and , andrew will be here ok, how are you all doing . Good. I have a number of jobs, and are you all interested in meeting the next president of the United States . [applause] good. Marfan. Is steve politics, ilocal used to be the mayor of portsmouth, New Hampshire, and i used to be a candidate for governor of New Hampshire last year. Dont club too much. It is breaking news, i did not there would i won, be burly security people trying to intimidate you. Good news is, im not intimidating at all. There is a Silver Lining to what happened, because i have more free time than what i had hoped to have, and it was a year ago, coincidentally, a year ago today, i sat down for the first time with andrew yang for a cup of coffee at the Bridge Street cafe in my hometown of manchester. I knew him, but i did not know much about him, to be honest. Knew at aes in, i minimum we were going to be friends at the end of this conversation, so he could check some boxes for me pretty early. 44yearold come a american, father of two, really likes math, holy crap, that was me, that was me, and we connected immediately. The balance of that hour ended up being the moment that i went from being, im going to be friends with this guy, to, i think this guy can be president. Then we took a couple of months, politics, i have got family up in pittsburg anyone from coos county . Yeah, coos county. It is ok. [laughs] it is a good thing. You cannot become president if you have not been snowmobiling. A National Advisor policy, when we connected, he was in 16th place, and after that meeting, back in january, we had another meeting, and we bumped into some folks that i knew, and they said hey, steve, who is your friend . I am like, he is running for president. That is my friend. Now we walked down the streets in manchester, and people go, hey, andrew, who is your friend . And that, in my estimation, counts as progress. All of a sudden, he is not in 16th place and a relatively unknown guy in New Hampshire. Has anybody seen any tv ads . Good. He is tied for fourth place nationally, raised 16. 5 million in the first quarter, with much more to come. , 2019, hehis, q1 raised 1. 7 million. Raisedyears eve day, we 1. 3 million. That also counts as progress. One of the key moments the light will went on that this guy had a chance was in late march, we did a town hall in plymouth, the common man and plymouth, kind of lookingalk, and i was at this incredibly politically, ideologically diverse crowd. I saw trump voters who were literally wearing it on their chest, maga. I saw clinton voters, i saw people like me, who had been Bernie Sanders voters, i saw jill stein voters and i am never going to vote again people. Those people are pretty obvious, it turns out. He was turning out a more Diverse Coalition than i had seen in 20 years o of New Hampshire democratic politics. Who had thentleman red make America Great again tshirt, and i said sir, you just sat there in our and thror and a half of a young asian man who is trying to give every citizen 1000 a year for the rest of their life, and are you attending the right meeting . Imanswer was hell, yeah, attending the right meeting, because he realized donald trump was the wrong answer to the right question, and that andrew yang was the right answer to that right question. If you are at all intellectually curious, youre probably thinking what i thought at that moment what the heck is the right question . Here it is. It is the question not enough american politicians are asking. Of thestions thfew other Democratic Candidates are asking, how come at a time when gdp record high stock market record high unemployment record low insulation record low how can it be we have been told econentire lives, any home 101 class, this is when these things are the case, you should be feeling unprecedented levels of Economic Prosperity, of personal and familial economic security, you should feel it your kids are destined for bigger and Better Things than you could ever have imagined. But this is also true. If you were born in the 1940s, good for you, 93 of people born there can say that their children will have a higher standard of living than they did. If you were born in the 1990s, that number is now under 50 . So all of these things i just told you, how can all these numbers 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 if we, i think we as a lifelong democrat, if we as a Democratic Party believe that the only way or the best way that we are going to be 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 for the same process. The only way that we win is if we present ourselves as not against things. I am turned on by andrew yang more than any candidate i have because, more than any candidate i have seen in a generation, andrew yang 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 that may have voted for donald trump in 2016. They desperately want maximum change, but they now realize the change they asked for was the not exactly the change that they wanted. 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] mr. Marchand how many of you have seen andrew speak in person before . All right, this is not a trick question. How many of you have not seen andrew speak before . Yeah, that is what i like, and i think when andrew finds that out, that is what he will like. Three months ago, two months ago, much less nine months ago, when we would do events, there were two things that are true. One, there were a heck of a lot less people at the events then we get now. The second thing is, it would be 80 diehard yang gang and 20 new people. And today, we find in most of these audiences, we find it is mostly a flip. 70 to 80 who have not seen him before but are newly interested in his candidacy. As we begin to focus on february 11. 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] yeah, by the way, i am becoming yang curious as to when they will arrive. [laughter] mr. Marchand 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 soon to be yang gang. That is synonymous. Somebody shout out for me, if you are yang curious, what has drawn you here today that might not have drawn you here a month or two ago . Our granddaughter likes him. Our granddaughter likes them. How old is your granddaughter . Almost 18. She is mr. Marchand when does she turn 18 . [laughter] mr. Marchand hold on, folks, i need to know this answer. March. I like that. The number of people i do not mean to offend. 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 that were showing up in a room like this were pretty young and quite male. While i am a relatively young and quite male person, we had to the reality is that we had to diversify in order to grow our coalition. And what i see here are folks that are now saying, it is my kids, it is my grandkids, they are the ones who got turned on me turned on to at least take a look at andrew yang. Indeed, the way that we win the election, obviously, is by pulling and people that maybe were not too excited in 2016 or in some peoples case, 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 the reason why andrew actually supports lowering the voting age to 16 years old. Because the data are very clear on this. When you get young people involved in the process, in their teens and 20s, you have probably got them for a lifetime, and there are other elements of Civic Engagement that follow suit. All of these are lacking for our sizable population. Thank you thank your granddaughter thank your granddaughter. Where does she live . I am putting you on the spot. You know, pennsylvania is a swing state. Eh . All right . I like that. I like that. Somebody else . Tell me why you are yang curious and you are here today. [indiscernible] mr. Marchand humanity first. How many of you have heard that as part of you andrew yang . Humanity first. The reality is, and it is one of my favorite things about andrew. We need to come as a country, separate the concept of economic value from human value. Andrews oldest son is seven years old, christopher, is on the autism spectrum. And was diagnosed about three years ago. You will probably hear a little bit 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, now that i am aware, at how often, to some extent, the question immediately goes to this so, how is your child, when he or she is an adult, how will they make a living . What kind of work will they do . There is an implication in there their human value and their economic value are the same. If they do not imagine them as being able to deliver economic value in a traditional way, a quantifiable way, the way we have defined for generations, then somehow they have less value as a human. 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. We have seen suicide rates one of the things that really measure whether we are getting it right is a society that is humid value. One of the things that got me into andrew early, he talked about these in railways. Very real ways. It is one of the mantras of his campaign. Hopefully he will get here before dinner. A shout out something else. Curiosity. Guess what save it for the q a. Talk to the press after. 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. First generation american just like andrew, just like me. A Columbia University graduate. Their two young now engagedticated, by the way, nobody can run for major office unless your family is tolerant. They must be supportive, because it is an allin effort. Evelyn is remarkably supportive, sophisticated. She will introduce the next president of the United States , which means i get to introduce the next first of the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, give a nice, warm bedford, New Hampshire welcome to evelyn yang. [applause] mrs. Yang 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. , because, 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, now 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. He is fun andl, 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. [laughter] i am just kidding. Our wedding vows were way more generic. 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. It is 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. He has not here to play partisan politics. He has never dreamed to be president or even be in politics. His goal is to solve problems and improve the lives of all americans. 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 problem of job creation. For his accomplishments, obama named him a champion of change and made him a president ial and ambassador of entrepreneurship. I have seen andrew in action over the years, time and time again. Building phenomenal at bridges, at uniting different people behind a 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. And you know 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 cannot 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 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 right now 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. This should not 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 as a country to do so. Of course, 1000 a month cannot solve all our problems. Have a lot ofry, 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. 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 the trickle up economy. From our people and our communities up. What really bewilders me is this completely topdown approach that all of our politicians take. Yes, you need policies and laws and regulations. But, one, they can take a long time to go into effect, and, two, 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 in peoplecentered way. It is why the more you hear from him, the more you want to hear from him. He makes too much sense, and then you realize this is what we have been missing in politics. Now, the man you have been waiting for, please join me in welcoming the next president of the United States, my husband andrew yang. [cheers and applause] return of the mack by Mark Morrison playing ] 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 sometime, which is i am the luckiest guy in the whole country. Thank you, evelyn. [applause] mr. Yang sometimes people thank me for running, and i say, thank her, because 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] mr. Yang 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 . 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, and then the student body erupted in applause. [laughter] mr. Yang 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. You know a couple of things. It is much harder than anyone lets on and when someone asks you how is going, what do you say . Great. It is going great. My business went great until it failed. My parents told people i was still a lawyer. [laughter] mr. Yang because they are asian, among other things. I had been bitten by the bug, and i became the head of an Education Company and was bought by a Bigger Company in 2009. 2009, we were in the midst of the financial crisis. How many of you were here in New Hampshire in 2009 . How was that period here in your