CONCORD, N.H. >> It is a backhanded compliment Andrew Yang has received before, and one that a New Hampshire voter paid him again today as Yang was campaigning and trying to raise his profile in the 21-candidate Democratic field.

“You’re too nice,” a man told Yang. “You need to be meaner.”

As his better-known rivals like Sen. Kamala Harris of California and former Vice President Joe Biden have ratcheted up their attacks of President Donald Trump, Yang, the former tech executive promising to give Americans $12,000 a year, has portrayed himself as a math-obsessed, solution-focused nerd who would be an ideal foil to the president.

But, in part because Yang is nice — he peppers his stump speech with jokes and the occasional self-deprecating remark — voters have sometimes questioned his pleasant demeanor and whether he can effectively spar with Trump or even political firebrands on the left like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

“I’m very passionate about how we can improve Americans’ day-to-day lives, and that’s where I’m focused,” Yang told dozens of voters inside a packed New Hampshire coffee shop today. “But to the extent anyone has a vicious agenda that tries to keep that from happening — I’ll fight.”

At a restaurant pub today in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, David Ho, a 27-year-old data scientist, said he had been drawn to Yang because of their shared Asian-American heritage, but worried the candidate was too soft-spoken compared with his rivals and could struggle to compete with Trump.

At the same time, Ho said, it is possible Yang is falling victim to false stereotypes that paint Asian-Americans as “reserved and submissive,” as Ho put it.

“My primary concern about him is he doesn’t do the whole emotional rah-rah speech most politicians do,” Ho said. “You have to be logical and willing to listen to support him, and a lot of people aren’t willing to sit through policies and ideas.”

Yang’s policy vision as a candidate is built around the concept of providing $1,000 a month to every American, an idea known as universal basic income, which he describes as an essential safety net when automation and advanced artificial intelligence make millions of jobs obsolete.

Though he remains a relative unknown nationally, Yang is polling strongest in New Hampshire, where he has registered 2 percent support in a debate-qualifying survey ahead of more politically experienced opponents like Sen. Kristen Gillibrand of New York and Julián Castro, the former housing secretary and former mayor of San Antonio.

“He’s my front-runner,” Neil Laraway, 37, said after hearing Yang speak Thursday night under a recreation center awning in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Getting a basic income would be a “game changer” for him and his wife, Laraway added, because “we’re in an apartment complex where we feel like, we’re kind of stuck.”

“The jobs we work at are fine, but we can’t save enough to pursue a house,” he said, “and if one of our cars goes, we’d be screwed.”

Not everyone who met Yang left as impressed. Gaye Jacques, a Republican who said she was “shopping around” for a candidate to support in 2020 after being disappointed by Trump and his habit of tweeting, said she liked Yang’s free-money proposal, but noted: “I missed the part where he said where all the money is coming from.”

Still, Yang seems well aware of the desire among Democrats to nominate a candidate who can beat Trump. Biden kicked off his campaign with a video that attacked the president directly, and Harris has recently tried to reset her campaign by mixing tough talk about Trump into her stump speech.

And today, as he has throughout his campaign, Yang pitched himself as among the few candidates who can defeat the president, by appealing to Trump supporters and progressives alike. Even his low name recognition, Yang said, has a silver lining.

“I can grow and grow, and win the whole thing in a way that’s not true of some of the other candidates,” he said, before repeating a cliché that is especially true in his case. “But I need your help.”

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