Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur who won a national following as a presidential candidate in 2020’s Democratic primary, will run for mayor of New York City, he officially announced Wednesday night.

The race is already stacked with candidates, with a likely decisive Democratic primary in June 2021.

But Yang stands apart. His presidential campaign had a nearly singular focus on a proposal for universal basic income, or UBI, in which the federal government would provide citizens with a monthly income. Yang, once an unknown entrepreneur, had never run for political office before launching his campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, but he raised millions of dollars and amassed an immense following of supporters across the political spectrum who gravitated toward his UBI plan, his warnings that automation would push Americans out of jobs, and his simple English approach to politics. “You can speak to people like people,” Yang said in an interview after ending his campaign early last year.

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