Over the last month, the media has finally begun to pick up on the grassroots buzz behind two longshot 2020 candidates, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

In a race featuring six sitting U.S. senators and a popular former vice president about to enter the fray, it’s worth considering how a mayor of the 299th largest city in America shot to third place in Iowa polling and how a no-name math nerd running on a universal basic income has managed to rival Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in Wisconsin.

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