Mike Norris, Co-Editor, The American Dossier
This week the 2020 Presidential Election officially began, as the Democratic candidates vying to run against Donald Trump took the stage for their first debate.
In order to qualify for the debates, candidates had to earn at least 1% support in three separate polls or have received donations from at least 65,000 people in 20 states, with a minimum of 200 donors per state. The number of participants was capped at 20 by the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”).
With such a large field of candidates, the DNC was eager to avoid a repeat of the 2016 Republican primary debates, which featured lower polling candidates on one night and higher polling candidates on another night. Their proposal: divide the candidates into two groups based on polling and randomly assign the candidates, to prevent the higher polling candidates from all appearing on the same night.
In spite of the DNC’s best efforts, only one major candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), appeared in Wednesday night’s debate. The two front runners, Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), both appeared in Thursday night’s debate.
The Lineups
Wednesday: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH); former HUD Secretary Julián Castro; Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ); Sen. Elizabeth Warren; former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI); Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Rep. John Delaney (D-MY).
Thursday: spiritual guru Marianne Williamson; former Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO); entrepreneur Andrew Yang; South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Vice President Joe Biden; Sen. Bernie Sanders; Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA); Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).
The Format
The debates were split into five segments each night. In each segment, the candidates had 60 seconds to answer questions and 30 seconds to respond to follow ups. The candidates did not deliver opening statements, but had a chance to deliver closing remarks.
Winners And Losers
With ten candidates onstage at each debate, every person was expected to get approximately 12 minutes each. According to an analysis by the Washington Post, Joe Biden lead the field with 13.6 minutes of speaking time; Kamala Harris was second with 11.9 minutes; Bernie Sanders was third with 11.0 minutes; and Cory Booker was fourth with 10.9 minutes.
According to GoogleTrends, Elizabeth Warren was the most searched candidate prior to the debates. After the debates, it was showed that Tulsi Gabbard, a relative unknown, emerged as the most-searched candidate despite having the third-lowest amount of speaking time; just over six minutes during the nearly two-hour event.
Winners
*Kamala Harris: Harris' big moment came when she took on Joe Biden over his association with segregationist senators. Seizing on a recent comment by Biden in which he highlighted his work with segregationist senators in the 1970’s, Harris said she had been personally hurt by his position on integrating schools.
"There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bussed to school every day," Harris said. "And that little girl was me."
*Julián Castro: The former HUD Secretary was able to carve out a remarkable amount of speaking time for a candidate polling somewhere between 0% and 1%. An hour into the debate, Castro had spoken as much as Elizabeth Warren, who is in the mid-teens in national polling. Castro's hammering of Beto O'Rourke was a clear win for Castro.
*Cory Booker: Booker found a way to inject himself into most of the conversations during the night, even those that did not involve him.
LOSERS
*Joe Biden: Biden seemed entirely unprepared for the attacks from Harris. He mentioned the Obama administration and its policies quite a bit, but he never had a break out moment.
Reeling from an attack by Harris, the 76-year-old delivered an unfortunate soundbite that threatens to symbolize his biggest political liability.
"My time is up," he said, meaning to cut short one of his own answers but instead drawing attention to a question that haunts his candidacy: Is his time up?
*Bernie Sanders: Sanders entered the debate as a top candidate in the polls and fund-raising. Although he made popular many of the policy ideas that dominated the night, he at times got lost on stage.
During Thursday's debate, Sanders made the points he has been making for months if not years, but other candidates onstage did so more effectively. At times, Sanders appeared more than eager to jump in but got lost in the ruckus. When Sanders did speak, he largely repeated sections from his stump speech.
Somewhat monotonous, tonally and substantively, the debate neither helped, nor hurt Sanders candidacy.
*Beto O'Rourke: O’Rourke surprised his competitors 9especially Booker) by displaying a Spanish fluency that would help him connect with Latino voters. But time and again, O’Rourke failed to answer basic questions. He then dodged one question, and then another.
O’Rourke’s performance showed that he is out of his depth from a policy perspective.
*Bill de Blasio: de Blasio began Thursday at the high point of his presidential campaign, glowing in the aftermath of his debate performance. But by evening, de Blasio was backtracking and apologizing for quoting Che Guevara in a Thursday appearance with striking Miami airport workers.
“Hasta la victoria siempre!” de Blasio stated. The saying was made famous by Guevara, former President Fidel Castro’s right-hand man during the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. The remark sparked swift backlash in South Florida; at least two state senators immediately criticized Mr. de Blasio.
By evening, the remark was running as a banner atop the Miami Herald’s website.
After serving as an Airborne Infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division, Mike attended Florida State University, where he received his Bachelors Degree in Political Science and George Washington University, where he received his Masters in Political Management.
Since 2004, Mike has worked in the Florida Senate, where he was one of only two Chief’s of Staff under 30 and in the Michigan Senate, where he served as the Legislative Aide to the Assistant Minority Floor Leader. The 2018 election cycle was Mike’s eighth as a Political Consultant.
Mike previously served as the Secretary and Vice President of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, Regional Vice Chair for the Florida Federated Young Republicans and attended the 2012 Republican National Convention as an Alternate Delegate.
He currently lives in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, with his rescue Pit Bull, Ike.
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