Democratic presidential primary debate (July 30-31, 2019)
Date: November 3, 2020 |
 Donald Trump Joe Biden Howie Hawkins Jo Jorgensen
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The Democratic Party held a presidential primary debate over two days in Detroit, Michigan, on July 30-31, 2019. It was the second of 11 Democratic primary debates that took place during the 2020 presidential election.
The debate was limited to 20 candidates with 10 candidates participating each night. Click here to see the qualifications for the debate.
This page provides an overview of the hosts, venue, moderators, qualifications, and participants.
Participants
Candidates had until July 16, 2019, to qualify for the debate. Twenty candidates were selected to participate based on their polling performance and/or grassroots fundraising.
The candidates were divided into three groups based on their polling performance. These groups were then randomly and equally distributed between the two nights of the debate using a drawing:
Tuesday, July 30
- Steve Bullock
- Pete Buttigieg
- John Delaney
- John Hickenlooper
- Amy Klobuchar
- Beto O'Rourke
- Tim Ryan
- Bernie Sanders
- Elizabeth Warren
- Marianne Williamson
Wednesday, July 31
Debate overview: July 30, 2019
Video and transcript
Candidate highlights
- Steve Bullock emphasized his 2016 gubernatorial win in a red state and criticized what he called wishlist economics. He said he opposed eliminating private insurance and supported the government negotiating cheaper drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Bullock also tied combating gun violence to fighting what he called dark money in politics.
- Pete Buttigieg called for debt-free college for low- and middle-income students. He said that he supported expanding the public service loan forgiveness program and opposed student loan debt cancellation proposals. Buttigieg also said he would withdraw troops from Afghanistan and require any authorization for the use of military force to have a three-year sunset provision. He said age did not matter in the race as much as vision did.
- John Delaney criticized Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, calling them impossible promises that would lead to Trump’s re-election. He said he was the only candidate on stage with experience in the healthcare industry and pitched his own healthcare proposal, BetterCare. Delaney also said that a wealth tax was arguably unconstitutional.
- John Hickenlooper opposed pulling troops completely out of Afghanistan, saying it would lead to a humanitarian disaster. He described himself as both progressive and pragmatic and said the country needed to focus on manufacturing and the economy rather than issues like a jobs guarantee in the Green New Deal.
- Amy Klobuchar said she knew how to win competitive elections, particularly in the Midwest. She opposed universal free college, saying it would also pay the tuition of wealthy students. Klobuchar also presented her $1 trillion infrastructure plan, including rural broadband and green infrastructure.
- Beto O'Rourke said he supported decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings but added that he expected immigrants to follow U.S. laws and reserved the right to criminal prosecution if they did not. O’Rourke called Texas a new battleground state and said he ran a U.S. Senate campaign that did not write off any voter. He also discussed improvements to the El Paso V.A. when he was in Congress.
- Tim Ryan said that some tariffs were effective but criticized the Trump administration’s use of them. He said the manufacturing base needed to be rebuilt and he would create a post of chief manufacturing officer. Ryan said the eligibility age for Medicare should be lowered from 65 to 50. He also said he would not have met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
- Bernie Sanders defended his democratic socialist policies as possible, pointing to Medicare’s start more than 50 years ago. While discussing trade policy, Sanders said he would not award government contracts to companies “throwing American workers out on the street.” He also called healthcare a human right and compared the U.S. healthcare system and pharmaceutical prices to Canada’s.
- Elizabeth Warren criticized other candidates who called for more moderate policies, saying, “I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for.” Warren advocated Medicare for All, a wealth tax, decriminalization of unauthorized border crossings, and changing the regulatory environment to address corruption.
- Marianne Williamson said the Democratic Party needed to talk about the causes and not just the symptoms of issues. She said the conversation on stage was not addressing the “dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country." Williamson also defended her $500 billion reparations proposal, calling it “payment of a debt that is owed.”
By the numbers
Debate overview: July 31, 2019
Video and transcript
Candidate highlights
- Michael Bennet said the Affordable Care Act should have a public option and criticized Medicare for All plans that “would make illegal employer-based health insurance in this country and massively raise taxes on the middle class to the tune of $30 trillion.” Bennet said Congress needed to be smart in how it approached impeachment since the U.S. Senate could acquit Trump if it reached that chamber.
- Joe Biden advocated expanding the Affordable Care Act and questioned Medicare for All proposals that had lengthy phase-ins or would significantly increase taxes. He defended his record on immigration and deportations during the Obama administration, pointing to a $750 million aid package for Central America and efforts to help Dreamers. He said he would not rejoin the TPP unless it was renegotiated to include greater accountability for China.
- Bill de Blasio said he would “tax the hell out of the wealthy to make this a fairer country and to make sure it’s a country that puts working people first.” He also cautioned that impeachment proceedings could be distracting and take focus away from economic issues. De Blasio questioned whether Biden pushed back on deportations during the Obama administration.
- Cory Booker said he worked to reduce racial disparities in criminal justice and criticized Biden’s record and 1994 crime bill. He also said Democrats lost Michigan in 2016 “because everybody from Republicans to Russians were targeting the suppression of African American voters.” Booker said impeachment proceedings needed to begin regardless of the politics.
- Julián Castro presented his proposal on new policing standards. He also advocated decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings and criticized Biden on immigration policy during their shared time in the Obama administration, saying “one of us has learned the lessons of the past and one of us hasn't.” He also said Trump should be impeached immediately regardless of the political outcome.
- Tulsi Gabbard criticized Harris’ record as a prosecutor and on the death penalty and healthcare. She said insurance and pharmaceutical companies should not be involved in the drafting process for new healthcare legislation. Gabbard also opposed TPP, saying the agreement gives away American sovereignty, and called for the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan.
- Kirsten Gillibrand emphasized that insurance companies are for-profit companies and said healthcare should be a right. She opposed the USMCA, particularly its provisions protecting intellectual property rights for pharmaceutical companies. She criticized Biden for a 1981 op-ed where he said expanding the childcare tax credit for wealthy families would subsidize the deterioration of family.
- Kamala Harris discussed her healthcare proposal, which would replace employer-based coverage but allow some people to keep Medicare Advantage. She criticized Biden’s plan, saying it would not hold insurance and pharmaceutical companies responsible for cost issues. She also called Trump’s trade policy a Trump trade tax on goods.
- Jay Inslee called Trump a white nationalist while discussing immigration and said the U.S. needed to expand its refugee programs. Inslee said his climate change plan was called the gold standard and that the U.S. could not delay getting off of coal and fossil fuels past a timeline of 10 years.
- Andrew Yang said “the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math” and the country needed to do something different. He highlighted his universal basic income proposal in several contexts, including pay equity for homemakers. Yang also said money spent on conflicts abroad should have been invested in U.S. communities.
By the numbers
Qualifications
On February 14, 2019, the Democratic National Committee released the following criteria for qualifying for the debate via polling or fundraising.[1]
Polling criteria
A candidate must receive 1 percent support or more in three national or early state polls—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada—publicly released between January 1, 2019, and 14 days prior to the date of the debate. Any candidate’s three qualifying polls must be conducted by different organizations, or if by the same organization, must be in different geographical areas. Qualifying polls are limited to the following organizations and institutions:
- Associated Press
- ABC News
- CBS News
- CNN
- Des Moines Register
- Fox News
- Las Vegas Review Journal
- Monmouth University
- NBC News
- New York Times
- National Public Radio
- Quinnipiac University
- Reuters
- University of New Hampshire
- Wall Street Journal
- USA Today
- Washington Post
- Winthrop University
Grassroots fundraising
Candidates may also qualify for the debate by providing verifiable evidence that they reached the following fundraising thresholds:
- Donations from at least 65,000 unique donors; and
- A minimum of 200 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.
Tiebreakers
No more than 20 candidates—10 candidates per night—can participate in the first and second debates. In the event that more than 20 candidates qualify, the DNC provided the following tiebreaker information in order of preference:
- Candidates who have reached both the polling and grassroots thresholds;
- Candidates with the highest polling averages; and
- Candidates with the highest number of contributions.
Who qualified?
The following chart shows which Democratic presidential candidates qualified for the debate and by which method.[2]
Venue
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced in April 2019 that Detroit, Michigan, would host the second set of Democratic presidential primary debates.
“Detroit embodies the values and character of the Democratic Party,” said DNC Chairman Tom Perez. "It’s a city of grit and determination, a city that has gotten knocked down only to get back up stronger. With its diversity, its storied history, and its proud ties to the labor movement, Detroit is the perfect place for our party’s second debate."[3]
The Fox Theatre was the venue for the event.
Democratic presidential primary debates, 2019-2020
- See also: Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.
Democratic presidential debate participation, 2019-2020
History of televised presidential debates
Although the 1960 general election debate between John F. Kennedy (D) and Richard Nixon (R) is frequently cited as the first televised presidential debate, two came before it.
The first televised presidential debate took place on May 21, 1956, when an ABC affiliate in Miami broadcast a Democratic primary debate between Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver.[4] In the general election that year, Stevenson and incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower (R) used surrogates in a televised debate on November 4, 1956. They were represented by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (D) and Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R), respectively.[5]
The Kennedy-Nixon debates that took place four years later showed the importance of television as a visual medium, "Nixon, pale and underweight from a recent hospitalization, appeared sickly and sweaty, while Kennedy appeared calm and confident. As the story goes, those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon had won. But those listeners were in the minority. ... Those that watched the debate on TV thought Kennedy was the clear winner. Many say Kennedy won the election that night," TIME reported on the 50th anniversary of the event.[6]
While a handful of presidential primary debates were held between 1964 and 1972, the televised presidential debate did not become a staple of American politics until 1976.[7]
Overview
The following chart shows the number of presidential and vice presidential debates that took place in each election cycle between 1960 and 2024.
List of presidential debates, 1960-2024
The following table shows the date, location, and moderators for each presidential debate between 1960 and 2024.[8]
| Presidential debates, 1960-2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Location | Moderator |
| September 26, 1960 | Chicago, IL | Howard K. Smith, CBS News |
| October 7, 1960 | Washington, D.C. | Frank McGee, NBC |
| October 13, 1960 | Los Angeles, CA / New York, NY | Bill Shadel, ABC |
| October 21, 1960 | New York, NY | Quincy Howe, ABC News |
| September 23, 1976 | Philadelphia, PA | Edwin Newman, NBC News |
| October 6, 1976 | San Francisco, CA | Pauline Frederick, NPR |
| October 22, 1976 | Williamsburg, VA | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| September 21, 1980 | Baltimore, MD | Bill Moyers, PBS |
| October 28, 1980 | Cleveland, OH | Howard K. Smith, ABC News |
| October 7, 1984 | Louisville, KY | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| October 21, 1984 | Kansas City, MO | Edwin Newman, formerly NBC News |
| September 25, 1988 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 13, 1988 | Los Angeles, CA | Bernard Shaw, CNN |
| October 11, 1992 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 15, 1992 | Richmond, VA | Carole Simpson, ABC |
| October 19, 1992 | East Lansing, MI | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 6, 1996 | Hartford, CT | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 1996 | San Diego, CA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 3, 2000 | Boston, MA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 11, 2000 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 17, 2000 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| September 30, 2004 | Coral Gables, FL | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 8, 2004 | St. Louis, MO | Charles Gibson, ABC |
| October 13, 2004 | Tempe, AZ | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2008 | Oxford, MS | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 7, 2008 | Nashville, TN | Tom Brokaw, NBC |
| October 15, 2008 | Hempstead, NY | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| October 3, 2012 | Denver, CO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 2012 | Hempstead, NY | Candy Crowley, CNN |
| October 22, 2012 | Boca Raton, FL | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2016 | Hempstead, NY | Lester Holt, NBC |
| October 9, 2016 | St. Louis, MO | Martha Raddatz, ABC Anderson Cooper, CNN |
| October 19, 2016 | Las Vegas, NV | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| September 29, 2020 | Cleveland, OH | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| October 22, 2020 | Nashville, TN | Kristen Welker, NBC |
| June 27, 2024 | Atlanta, GA | Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, CNN |
| September 10, 2024 | Philadelphia, PA | David Muir and Linsey Davis, ABC |
Previous debates: June 26-27, 2019
The Democratic Party held a presidential primary debate over two days in Miami, Florida, on June 26-27, 2019. It was the first of 11 Democratic primary debates that took place during the 2020 presidential election.
The debate was limited to 20 candidates with 10 candidates participating each night. Twenty candidates met the fundraising and/or polling criteria to qualify for the debate.
Click here for an overview of the first debate:
See also
- Presidential candidates, 2020
- Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
- Republican presidential nomination, 2020
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
Footnotes
- ↑ Democratic National Committee, "DNC ANNOUNCES DETAILS FOR THE FIRST TWO PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATES," February 14, 2019
- ↑ FiveThirtyEight, "Tiebreakers Could Decide Who Makes The Second Democratic Debates," June 25, 2019
- ↑ Democratic National Committee, "SECOND DNC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATE TO BE HELD IN DETROIT," April 2, 2019
- ↑ Illinois Channel, "From 1956, the First Televised Presidential Debate," June 15, 2016
- ↑ United States Senate, "The First Televised Presidential Debate," accessed June 12, 2019
- ↑ TIME, "How the Nixon-Kennedy Debate Changed the World," September 23, 2010
- ↑ Center for Politics, "Eight Decades of Debate," July 30, 2015
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "Debate History," accessed September 28, 2020
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