Meet Evelyn Yang, Potentially the First Asian American First Lady

There is so much to know about Evelyn Yang, the better half of Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

While her entrepreneur-turned politician husband continues to make headlines and rank higher in polls, the former beauty marketing executive and mother of two has pretty much stayed out of the spotlight.

We’ve compiled some important facts that you might want to check out about our potential first Asian American First Lady.

Life Before Andrew

Evelyn Lu, who was born on October 31, 1981, studied a degree in international studies at Columbia University, according to Voices of NY. During a study abroad program, she traveled to Shanghai where she ended up befriending Eileen Lee, who would later become the Chief Operating Officer for Andrew’s firm Venture for America.

“At Columbia, Evelyn and I met while studying abroad in Shanghai, and she had the intuition that Andrew and I would work well together,” Lee wrote in a Medium post. “She and I had both left corporate jobs after five-plus years, and I was in the midst of pivoting my career when I met with [Andrew].”

Before meeting Andrew, Evelyn had a career in the corporate sector, including a stint at L’Oréal as a marketing executive.

When Evelyn Met Andrew

Evelyn is six years younger than Andrew, who is now 44 years old. She met Andrew at Columbia University, their alma mater, while he was working at the test preparation company Manhattan GMAT and she was still working at L’Oreal.

“He seemed so earnest and genuine,” she told the Washington Post. “I felt like he wore his heart on his sleeve, which was refreshing. I joke with him, even now, it’s like he had no game. He wasn’t trying to game it in any way, and I really love that about him.”

Andrew, who graduated from Columbia School of Law in 1999, was likely back on campus for an alumni-related event when he met Evelyn between 2006-2010.

Wedding Bells

Evelyn and Andrew obtained their marriage license in 2010 but the official marriage date is listed as January 3, 2011.

Devoted mom

Currently a stay-at-home mom, Evelyn spends most of her time looking after their two sons, one of whom is on the autistic spectrum.

In some of his speeches, Andrew has used his wife as an example to illustrate how his “Freedom Dividend” reflects the value of the work people do outside of traditional employment.

“Her work counts as zero in GDP, which is clearly not an appropriate reflection of the value,” Yang explained. “GDP right now is leading us off a cliff where we’re cheer-leading this measurement that we made up almost 100 years ago… What we have to do is update our measurements to things that would actually reflect how we’re doing, things like mental health, freedom from substance abuse, health and life expectancy, clean air and clean water. If you have the wrong measurements, you can’t make progress. And right now GDP is going to keep hitting record highs even as our life expectancy shortens and more and more Americans get left behind. Human-centered capitalism is about updating our measurements to actually reflect how we are doing.”

Date Nights

Evelyn, Andrew and their two children currently live in New York. Despite Andrew’s busy schedule campaigning, the couple still finds time to spend with each other. Andrew occasionally tweets about their dates which involve nights out, dinners and movies together.

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Supportive Partner

Andrew, who often talks about his family on the campaign trail, receives a lot of support from Evelyn.

“When he becomes a man on a mission, he gets very animated and passionate about it, and there’s really no stopping him,” Evelyn was quoted as saying. “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,” she added.

Featured Image via Instagram / AndrewYang2020

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