The first Democratic presidential debate in June is likely to feature a lot of familiar faces: Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, maybe Joe Biden or Beto O’Rourke if they decide to run.
It’s also likely to feature someone even few political junkies had heard of until very recently: Andrew Yang.
Yang, a startup veteran and founder of the nonprofit Venture for America who has never run for elected office before, has made a $12,000-per-year basic income for all American adults the centerpiece of his campaign. He averages 0 to 1 percent in public opinion polls, but as of this writing, he’s surged on prediction markets, with bettors giving him slightly worse odds than Warren, Booker, and Klobuchar, and better odds than Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, or Julián Castro.
Some of that momentum can be traced to his appearance on comedian Joe Rogan’s wildly popular podcast (the above YouTube clip of his appearance has more than 2…
