Zaid Jilani says Andrew Yang running a ‘parochial-like, common sense-type’ campaign in New York

Journalist Zaid Jilani said Monday that New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang is running a “parochial, common sense-type campaign” that is resonating well in the city.

“Maybe the key here is that Yang is running a very, sort of, I guess he would say it’s a very like parochial-like, common sense-type campaign, right, he isn’t necessarily campaigning on a suite of policies, he’s not portraying himself as some kind of policy wonk,” Jilani said on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”

“But I think a lot of what he’s doing is he’s just trying to relate to people. He’s out there in very kind of normal circumstances chatting up with people,” Jilani continued.

Jilani said Yang’s strategy works to appeal to individuals who are not “plugged-in political insiders,” which is similar to what he did in his 2020 White House bid.

“I think Yang’s approach to politics — which is just like appealing to people who aren’t necessarily plugged-in political insiders, who don’t speak like activists, who don’t necessarily follow every little development in the news. But it’s sort of appealing to people on sort of a person-to-person, human-to-human basis, which is a lot of what he did in his presidential campaign,” he said.

“I think [Yang’s approach to politics] can actually work very, very well at the local level where so much of the campaigning is retail, so much of the campaigning is based in circumstances that I think somebody like Yang just relates very well to and excels at,” Jilani added.