By Lila Smith ’22

A lot has changed since Wordsworth published our first article on the candidates for the 2020 election.  Many new candidates have entered the race, including former vice-president Joe Biden, who is currently polling the highest out of all of the candidates.

The third Democratic debate on Thursday, September 12 marked the first time in the race that all candidates were together. In order to make it on the stage, the presidential hopefuls had to poll 2% in at least four different polls; these polls can be national or in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. Candidates were also required to have 13,000 unique donors and 400 donors from 20 states. Candidates were limited to a minute and fifteen seconds of speaking time. The moderators for the debate were Jorge Ramos, George Stephanopoulos, David Muir, and MFS alum Linsey Davis.

The debate lasted three hours and covered topics such as healthcare, foreign policy, and gun control. The candidates with the longest speaking time were Biden (seventeen minutes) and Warren (sixteen). The candidates with the least amount of speaking time were O’Rourke (nine minutes) and Yang (eight minutes). 

So who won the debate? In terms of  the most speaking time, Joe Biden would be this debate’s winner. Biden started off strong during the first 30 minutes of the debate when viewership is the highest, but his presence died out towards the end. Additionally, Biden was the most attacked candidate, taking heat from Castro, Sanders, and Warren. Castro berated Biden for “forgetting already what you [he] said just two minutes ago.” Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders battled over Medicare For All; Biden supports the Affordable Care Act while Sanders supports Medicare for All. 

Joe Biden also suffered some major stumbles during the debate. Biden’s most talked-about stumble was when moderator Linsey Davis asked,“What responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?” Biden started his answer by proposing to give teachers in poor schools a raise, but his suggestion for poor parents to turn on the record player left many viewers confused by his dated reference. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren also had one of the best performances of the debate. Warren was polling second at 17.0% and had the second most speaking time. Senator Warren talked about her ambitious plans. Warren did not dominate the debate, but she had a few tough moments and received little backlash from her opponents. 

The most talked-about moment was from Beto O’Rourke on federally mandated gun buybacks. When asked if he would institute mandatory buybacks for specific machine guns, O’Rourke said, “Hell yes.” O’Rourke left the campaign trail a month ago when a shooting in his hometown of El Paso killed twenty-two people. In the wake of the shooting, O’Rourke’s campaign shifted to focus more on his gun violence campaign. O’Rourke also received the most praise from other candidates for the support and leadership he took in El Paso following the shooting. Both Biden and Harris highly praised O’Rourke during the debate. 

This debate also had a historical first when Mayor Pete Buttigieg talked about his coming out story. Buttigieg is the first openly gay candidate running for president, and he is a running an underdog campaign for president.

One question remains: how did this debate affect the candidates’ positions in the polls? The answer is not much, with most candidates only rising or dropping by a percentage. The next debate, which is scheduled for October 15, can change a lot for the 2020 race.