Andrew Yang announced a $120,000 online raffle on the Democratic presidential primary debate stage Thursday night. 10 randomly selected families will receive $1,000 per month for a year, a small-scale version of Yang’s signature policy proposal.
The former tech entrepreneur and tech executive has centered his campaign on his universal basic income plan: a no-strings-attached $1,000 per month for every U.S. adult. The “Freedom Dividend,” as Yang calls it, is intended to ease the negative effects of job displacement and massive economic shifts caused by technology and automation.
“If you donate money to a presidential campaign, what happens? The politician spends the money on TV ads and consultants and you hope it works out,” Yang said in his opening statement. “It’s time to trust ourselves more than our politicians. That’s why I’m going to do something unprecedented tonight. My campaign will now give a Freedom Dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families, someone watching this at home right now.”
The raffle will be open for the next week on Yang’s campaign website, and individuals can enter without any contribution to Yang’s campaign. The $120,000 in prizes will come from Yang’s campaign committee.
This will not be the first time Yang implemented a pilot version of his $1,000 a month plan. His campaign has chosen individuals in Iowa and New Hampshire to receive $1,000 per month.
The move also allows Yang to collect contact information from all the individuals who enter the raffle, a valuable asset for a presidential campaign.
