By MIKE McCOMBS
Andrew Yang will bring his campaign for president to Beaufort County on Thursday, Aug. 15.
The Democratic candidate will speak at the North of the Broad Democratic Club meeting at the Grand Army of the Republic Hall at 706 Newcastle Street.
The gathering and greeting begins at 6:30 p.m., followed by the meeting at 7 p.m., but Yang probably won’t speak until roughly 7:45 p.m.
Yang is known for his signature policy, called the “Freedom Dividend.” The Freedom Dividend is a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI), where all Americans 18 and older would receive $1,000 a month.
According to Yang, this will soften the blow of an increasingly difficult U.S. labor landscape as a result of current and future job elimination due to automation.
Yang’s two other major platform issues are Medicare for all and human-centered capitalism.
The founder of Venture for America (VFA), a non-profit that focuses on creating jobs in struggling American cities, Yang is pro-choice, opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identification and wants the United States to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords.
Speaking before Yang will be the scheduled special speaker, Gloria Holmes, PhD, a professor at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. She teaches on “Cultural Diversity in Education,” preparing students to demonstrate an understanding of the depth and breadth of cultural diversity within the United States.
Also, Holmes is a member of Bridge4Unity, an interracial dialogue and cultural exchange project that bring together three distinct communities with diverse cultural, social, historical, and political profiles.
Yang joins a growing list of 2020 candidates who have visited Beaufort County since the spring. Previous candidates to swing through the Lowcountry include Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, John Hickenlooper and Marianne Williamson.
