And Then There Were 10: A Guide to September’s Democratic Debate

For the first time on the trail towards the 2020 election, the Democratic candidates shared only one stage and had only one night of debates. The third in a series of Democratic debates, run by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was held on Thursday, Sept. 12, at Texas Southern University, a historically black university in Houston, Texas.

The debate lasted three hours, from 8-11 p.m. and featured the ten Democratic candidates who satisfied the qualifications laid out by the DNC to be on the debate stage in September. To qualify for the third debate, each candidate must have earned at least 2 percent support in four national polls released between late June and late August and received campaign contributions from at least 130,000 donors. 

Frontrunners Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, and Senator Elizabeth

Warren from Massachusetts were set at the center of the group of candidates. Following Warren on the right side of the stage were Senator Kamala Harris from California, New York entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, and President Obama’s former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro. To the left of the stage following Sanders stood South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey, and Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota.

In a night full of heated exchanges between many of the members on stage, here are some key moments from Thursday night’s debate:

After that vicious brawl with Biden on one side of the table and Warren and Sanders opposite on the topic of healthcare, Warren rounds up the subject by saying, “I know what’s broken, I know how to fix, and I am going to lead the fight to get it done.” Needless to say, Warren was one of the strongest candidates on that stage. 

If not the comic relief of an intense debate, Andrew Yang stated at one time that he is “an Asian, so I know a lot of doctors,” to which he received an uproar of laughter and applause from the crowd and some of the candidates on stage.

A powerful moment between Biden and Castro came when Castro delivered a firm blow to the former VP, saying, “I am fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama, and you’re not.” 

Biden, though he took many beatings throughout the night, delivered one swift jab at Bernie Sanders, stating,” for a socialist, you have a lot more confidence in capital America than I do.” This blow came from Biden in criticism of Sanders’s Medicare-for-All healthcare plan.

So, with all that being said, who really won the debate? And who really lost?

Beto O’Rourke had many breakout moments during the debate, most of which came from the subject of gun violence. When asked about his mandatory gun buyback program, O’Rourke responded, “I am, if it’s a weapon that was designed to kill people on the battlefield. If the high-impact, high-velocity round, when it hits your body, shreds everything inside of your body, because it was designed to do that, so that you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers.” O’Rourke’s campaign halted for a short time following the shooting at a Walmart in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, which killed almost two dozen people and injured many more. He took some time away from his campaign to grieve and spend time with his community and did the same following two other shootings in Odessa and Midland, Texas. For his statements made about his buyback program, he received much applause and support from the crowd. He continued, speaking about his meeting of the mother of a 15-year-old girl during the Odessa shooting who died because there were not enough ambulances, to which he summed his policy up, “hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”

There is no doubt that when Bernie Sanders came on the stage Thursday night, his plan was to attack and to fight. That became very evident in his opening statement, when he called Trump the most dangerous president in the history of our nation and stated our country was moving towards an “oligarchic” society under our current administration. However, Sanders received mixed reviews following his performance. In fact, many said his performance fell short to that of Senator Warren’s, whom he is fighting against to secure the Democratic party’s more left base.

In what was definitely the most aggressive debate the 2020 election has seen yet, lucky Elizabeth Warren was not the subject of any jabs made by other candidates. Actually, she came off the debate stage untouched. While surrounded by a lot of fighting to her left and right, between Castro and Biden, and Biden and Sanders, Warren did not receive any criticism or attacks by anyone else on the stage. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden had a strong first half of the debate, but his strength fell quickly to jabs from many other candidates on the stage. He faced scrutiny on his positions- former and current- on race, healthcare, immigration and deportation, and not surprisingly, on his age. Beginning the debate, during which time had the strongest viewership, Biden offered a staunch opening, where he quoted late President JFK and presented more of why he is good for the White House, rather than why he was good in the past. Toward the end of the debate, however, after taking shots from all sides, the protesters in the crowd shouting inaudibly did it in for Biden and threw him off guard.

Kamala Harris had some of the night’s best lines, though some of them came off particularly scripted. She opened her performance with a fierce address to President Trump and closed her statement, saying, “Now, President Trump, you can go back to watching Fox News,” which received support from the audience. Her more seemingly rehearsed responses, such as comparing Trump to the “little dude” behind the curtain in Wizard of Oz fell flat, but when she discussed the speech related to the El Paso shooting, saying Trump definitely “didn’t pull the trigger, but he’s certainly been tweeting out the ammunition,” many supporters felt she was hit the nail right on the head.

In an attempt to crack Biden’s support, Julián Castro took shots at the former Vice President’s age, hinting that he may be suffering from memory loss. Castro’s shots fell short though, and many people found his attempts unflattering. Nonetheless, he did receive praise for his statements concerning race. 

Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg has been

praised since the beginning of his campaign on his ability to articulate his policies in any environment. His performance was nothing short of impressive, especially given his opening statement followed Andrew Yang’s, who garnered a lot of laughter after proposing he would give $1,000 a month for an entire year to 10 families just for signing up on his website. While Buttigieg did not have any stand-out moments or great performance overall, his speaking abilities are somewhat unmatched compared to the other candidates on the debate stage. 

As for the other candidates, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and Andrew Yang, while they did well in the September debates, their performances were not very outstanding in comparison to the rest of the group.

The next Democratic debate will be hosted by the New York Times and CNN near Columbus, Ohio. The first night will be October 15, with a following date set for October 16 if enough candidates qualify.