Andrew Yang was the surprise package of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Yang rose from relative obscurity to become a strong contender for the Democratic party ticket. His universal basic income policy attracted widespread debate and is still a hot topic in American politics.
Yang didn’t make the ballot, but the disappointment didn’t dampen his appetite for political office. Yang campaigned for the Democratic ticket in the upcoming New York City mayoral elections, but conceded defeat to Eric Adams.
Andrew Yang’s wife, Evelyn Yang, helps Andrew maintain a healthy work-life balance. This article will reveal some truths about her.
She trusted Andrew from the first moment she met him
Andrew is a Columbia University alumni, but the couple didn’t meet during his schooling days. Andrew worked at Manhattan Prep, and Evelyn worked at L’Oreal. Evelyn told the Washington Post that he trusted Andrew from the beginning;
“He seemed so earnest and genuine. I felt like he wore his heart on his sleeve, which was refreshing. I joke with him, now even, it’s like he had no game. He wasn’t trying to game it in any way, and I really love that about him.”
Evelyn is also a Columbia University alumni, and part of her education included international studies in Shanghai. During one of her trips to Shanghai, she met Eileen Lee. This meeting would prove beneficial to her husband since Eileen went on to become COO of Venture for America. Andrew launched the non-profit company to train the youth on entrepreneurship.
Eileen revealed in an interview with Columbia Venture Community;
“[Evelyn] and I had both left corporate jobs after 5+ years, and I was in the midst of pivoting my career when I met him. I was looking to focus on building something that would help people. After hearing the idea over dinner, Andrew offered me a job. I called him the next day and I was in.”
The couple got married in 2011 in a secret coastal location
After dating for a while the couple got married on 3rd January 2011. However, public records show that they got their marriage license in 2010.
It remains unclear where the couple got married, but their wedding photos suggest that it was somewhere in the East Coast or the Caribbean. The photos of their purple-themed wedding are on a Facebook page known as CD weddings.
The wedding photos show that it was a small and intimate wedding. There weren’t many guests around, suggesting that the couple only invited close friends and family.
Evelyn and Andrew are still very close to each other. The secret is that they find time to spend with each other. Date nights are a regular occurrence, and the dates help strengthen the bond between the couple.
Evelyn quit her job as marketing executive to become a stay-at-home mom
Evelyn and Andrew’s marriage has yielded two sons, aged 6 and 3. The family lives in a 2-bedroomed apartment in Manhattan, with the kids sleeping in bunk beds. When the family isn’t in Manhattan, they are usually enjoying a weekend at their country home in the Hudson Valley.
Evelyn quit her job as a marketing executive to become a stay-at-home mom. She took this decision to give closer care to one of her sons, who is autistic. Andrew revealed in a YouTube interview that he appreciates the work that his wife does.
Andrew also uses her wife to explain his economic philosophy. On 13th December 2018, he tweeted;
“My wife is at home with our two boys, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. What is her contribution? GDP says $0. The monetary market says $0. We know otherwise. We must evolve to a more human economy.”
His son’s autism condition has also influenced part of Andrew’s campaign philosophy. Evelyn and Andrew know that it can be difficult to take care of an autistic child without the proper resources. That is why one of his campaign policies is to fund autism intervention. Andrew wrote on his campaign website;
“One of my boys is on the autism spectrum – I know how invaluable resources and intervention can be, particularly if adopted early on…As a country, we should provide ample resources to parents to be able to intervene to support the development of children with autism or who are exceptional in other ways. These children have something unique to offer.”
Evelyn opened up about sexual assault at the hands of shamed doctor Robert Hadden
In an interview with CNN, Evelyn stated that she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Robert Hadden when she was seven months pregnant with the couple’s first child. Evelyn said that she blamed herself and didn’t inform Andrew about the attack.
“Not everyone has the audience or platform to tell their story, and I actually feel like I’m in this very privileged position to be able to do that,” Evelyn said. She said that Robert concocted an excuse to keep her at the office and proceeded to assault her:
“I was dressed and ready to go. Then, at the last minute, he kind of made up an excuse. He said something about, ‘I think you might need a C-section,’ and he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me internally, ungloved.”
Evelyn later worked with the Manhattan district attorney’s office to bring charges against Robert Hadden. Unfortunately, Hadden got away with a slap on the wrist: The nature and extent of his crimes deserved a more severe penalty.
The plea deal he signed gave him no jail time and required him to give up his medical license. He also got the lowest sex offender status. Yang feels that the judge would have dismissed the plea deal had she and other accusers testified during his sentencing. She said:
“I was just flat-out denied. It was very strategic so that the judge wouldn’t be influenced if there were dozens of women in court saying that this man had assaulted them to this degree, maybe the judge would have said, ‘Why is he not getting any jail time? Why aren’t you pursuing jail time?’”
Following Evelyn’s interview, more women came forward accusing Hadden of sexual assault. District Attorney Cyrus Vance came under intense criticism for what people perceived as racially biased leniency. He responded via the following statement:
“Because a conviction is never a guaranteed outcome in a criminal trial, our primary concern was holding him accountable and making sure he could never do this again – which is why we insisted on a felony conviction and permanent surrender of his medical license.”
Along with other survivors, Yang pressured Manhattan federal prosecutors into charging Hadden with more counts of sexual assault.
She relied on Yang to update her about the elections as she doesn’t use social media
Andrew announced his intention to vie as a presidential candidate in November 2017. He began as a nobody, but after publishing his book, The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future, people started to take him seriously.
When Andrew talked to Evelyn about his political ambitions, she thought that he was joking. She only realized that Andrew was serious when he quit his job. Andrew decided to vie after persistent calls from friends asking him to vie for political office. At the time, the couple would just laugh off the calls to vie for office because politics didn’t seem to match with Andrew’s character.
Andrew has proved everyone, including himself, wrong and he is now a strong Democratic Party candidate. Evelyn tries to support him as much as she can. She told the Washington Post;
“When he becomes a man on a mission, he gets very animated and passionate about it, and there’s really no stopping him. And the truth is, I didn’t know how far he would get. But I believed in what he was trying to accomplish. There’s nothing to do but to be supportive.”
Evelyn relies on her husband to update her on how the campaign is going. She doesn’t use social media, and that is probably why she believes that some of her friends don’t know that Andrew is vying for president.
Evelyn provides her support whenever she can, but she doesn’t like talking about her husband’s campaign. She told the Washington Post;
“Once you say, ‘My husband is running for president,’ it sort of hijacks the conversation.”
She and Andrew are raising their children under the Christian religion
Evelyn and Andrew decided to raise their children on Christian values. The family rarely misses church services, and Andrew admits that Christianity has had a positive impact on the family. He revealed on his website;
“My wife and I have been bringing our boys to church for the last several years. It has been very positive for the whole family. During this time, I have become friends with my pastor, Mark Mast.”
Andrew’s political ambitions and policies have also benefited from the family’s close relationship with the church. He revealed on his website;
“Meeting with the Christian entrepreneurs was enlightening. I found that the themes of the campaign and their point of view are aligned in many important respects – a mindset of abundance, of community, and of lifting up the least among us.”
Church time provides useful family bonding time for this close-knit family. At the moment, Evelyn and Andrew have chosen to keep their children away from the public eye. Most politicians involve their children when it comes to campaigns, but it seems unlikely that Andrew and Evelyn will involve their boys.
The boys are probably even too young to realize that their dad might just become the most powerful man on the planet.
Evelyn and Andrew have decided against circumcising their children
Andrew and Evelyn have successfully managed to keep their children away from the public eye, but they have revealed that the boys won’t undergo circumcision. The debate about circumcision began when a Twitter user asked Andrew about his stand on circumcision.
Andrew stated that he was against the practice. Evelyn later revealed that a pediatrician advised the couple that circumcision was purely for aesthetic purposes. She told the Washington Post; “Why would I have surgery performed on him for something strictly aesthetic?”
Evelyn’s interest in circumcision deepened when Netflix recommended that she watch the documentary, American Circumcision. She didn’t understand why Netflix recommended the documentary, but she and Andrew watched it anyway. The documentary only served to strengthen their stand against circumcision.
Andrew is against circumcision for his boys, but anti-circumcision isn’t part of his campaign. He tweeted that he is for parents making their own decisions when it comes to circumcision. On 20th March, he tweeted;
“Just to clarify – I support the freedom of parents to adopt circumcision for any religious or cultural ritual as desired…Always up to parents.”