On Thursday night, 10 candidates took to the stage in Houston, Texas for the third Democratic debate in the 2020 presidential race.
The debate was held at Texas Southern University, one of the largest historically black universities in the country.
In order to qualify for the debate, candidates needed at least 2% support in at least four Democratic National Committee approved polls released between June 28 and August 28. Candidates also needed at least 130,000 unique donors with 400 unique donors per state in at least 20 states by 11:59pm on August 28.
The 10 candidates who qualified, in order of polling averages from highest to lowest, were:
· Former Vice President Joe Biden
· Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren
· Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
· California Senator Kamala Harris
· Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg
· Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
· New Jersey Senator Cory Booker
· Former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke
· Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro
· Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
The most popular candidates, former Vice President Biden and Senator Warren, were positioned at the center of the stage.
The debate was moderated by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos, ABC News World News Tonight Anchor and Managing Editor David Muir, ABC News Correspondent Linsey Davis and Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos.
Before the questions began, each candidate was asked to give an opening statement. Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Castro emphasized universal pre-k and universal health care along with the future of clean energy. Former Congressman O’Rourke condemned the recent shooting in his hometown of El Paso, which targeted Latino immigrants and killed 22 people.
Yang announced his plan to give a $1000 monthly stipend to 10 American families who enter a giveaway on his website. Other notable moments included Senator Harris’ direct address of President Donald Trump as well as Senator Sanders’ emphasis on raising the minimum wage and taking the country’s energy system away from fossil fuels.
The rules, agreed upon by each campaign, were as follows: Candidates had 1 minute and 15 seconds to respond to direct questions and 45 seconds to respond to follow-up questions and rebuttals.
Moderators began the debate by asking the candidates questions about health care, a divisive topic among Democrats that has been brought up in both previous debates this year. Biden clashed with Senator Sanders and Senator Warren for their support of Medicare for All, a projected expansive public health care system. Alternatively, Biden’s plan would build on Obamacare by allowing Americans to buy in to a Medicare-style program without requiring it. Senator Klobuchar opposed Medicare for All for its displacement of private insurance. Mayor Buttigieg expressed his trust in individual American families to choose an option that works best for them. Similarly, Harris said that her plan would allow American families to choose between a public plan and a private plan.
Sanders directly attacked Biden several times on other issues as well, including immigration and the Iraq war. “I voted against the war in Iraq,” said Sanders, citing the differences between himself and Biden.
As the questions shifted toward the issue of gun control, candidates praised Former Representative O’Rourke for his response the El Paso shooting. O’Rourke then proposed a mandatory buyback program under which gun owners would sell their assault-style weapons to the government. “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”, O’Rourke said to a round of applause.
O’Rourke also condemned systemic racism in America. “We have a white supremacist in the White House,” he said, “and he poses a moral threat to people of color across this country.”
When asked about how Americans should make reparations to the legacy of slavery, Biden discussed flaws in the American educational system without making direct mention of race.
Another topic of discussion was the climate change crisis. After being asked about his vegan diet, Senator Booker condemned factory farming for its destructive impact on the environment. O’Rourke presented a set of goals set to curb climate change. Among those, he vowed to reach net zero greenhouse emissions no later than 2050, mobilize 5 trillion dollars over the next 10 years to do so, invest in pre-disaster mitigation grants for environmentally at-risk communities and embrace renewable wind and solar energy. Klobuchar promised to enter the United States back into the international climate change agreement.
Warren then proposed cutting all carbon emissions from buildings by 2028, from cars by 2030 and from the manufacturing of electricity by 2035. She stated that by taking these actions, carbon emissions in the United States would be cut by 70 percent.
The next Democratic presidential debate is set to take place on October 15 and 16 in Ohio. It will be held over the course of two nights as a result of Tom Steyer’s qualification on September 8.
