Yang highlights outsider status in Iowa ad ahead of caucuses

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang is touting his status as a political outsider in a new Iowa ad as the Democratic presidential hopeful seeks to gin up support for his White House bid less than two weeks ahead of the Hawkeye State’s caucuses.

In the ad, which is the product of a $500,000 media buy and will start airing across Iowa on Wednesday, Yang argues that an outsider is uniquely suited to defeat President Trump.

“I’m the only candidate to build a nonprofit that created thousands of jobs in places from St. Louis to Baltimore,” he said. “More than any other candidate, I know how to build a 21st century economy that rewrites the rules so they work for you.”

“The hard truth is we won’t beat Donald Trump with what’s coming out of Washington today — old ideas and angry rhetoric. Donald Trump is a symptom of a broken system. To defeat him, we need someone with experience tackling the economic challenges of our time. I’ve done that,” he added.

Yang, who launched the nonprofit Venture for America in 2011, went on to promise he would create millions of jobs and ensure all Americans have access to health care.

The entrepreneur has often touted his outsider status on the campaign trail, underlining his past as a businessman while focusing much of his campaign on creating a plan for universal basic income and policies intended to combat the impacts of automation on blue-collar workers. 

While Yang has enjoyed an unexpected staying power in the primary race, outlasting multiple senators and governors who had heftier campaign bank accounts and wider name recognition, the RealClearPolitics average of polling in Iowa shows him a distant sixth behind former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, which this year fall on Feb. 3, have a history of culling the primary field and curtailing momentum for candidates who place outside the top tier. However, Yang has racked up millions in cash on hand to help sustain his run and has shown no signals he intends to drop out of the race should he fall outside the top five.