The Democratic Candidates Who Spoke the Most at the Debate—and What They Said

The second night of the Democratic presidential debate featured four of the five candidates leading in the polls, in contrast to Wednesday’s opener, which had only one candidate—Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren—polling in the double digits. All that starpower led to several high-stakes exchanges among the presidential hopefuls and left fewer opportunities for lesser-known candidates to stand out.

The random draw to determine which candidates debated on Wednesday and Thursday may have created the most opportunity for New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke, a former U.S. Representative from Texas. Both spoke longer than Warren on Wednesday despite polling at 2.3% and 3.3% respectively, according to RealClearPolitics, and spoke about as much as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders—polling at 17%—did on Thursday.

California Senator Kamala Harris made the most of her time on stage. Of the 20 candidates who debated, she spoke the second most, behind former Vice President Joe Biden. But even when she wasn’t speaking, she likely made an impression on television viewers. She directly invoked Biden and his policies on several occasions, including when she told Biden it was “hurtful” to hear him speak warmly of his working with segregationist senators earlier in his career. During the four-and-a-half minute exchange in which no other candidates interrupted, NBC’s broadcast showed side-by-side close ups of their faces. Biden said he “did not praise racists.”

The exchange, which also touched on Biden’s earlier positions on school busing and the Equal Rights Amendment, was just one example of the candidates discussing race and other social issues. It happened after South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was asked about the fatal shooting of a black man by a white city police officer, which invited a volley of attacks and comments about racial justice from the other candidates on stage. “As the only black person on this stage,” Harris said, cutting in, “I would like to speak on the issue of race.”

Immigration was also a hot-button issue on both nights of the debates. On Wednesday, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro invoked Oscar and Valeria Martínez, migrants who drowned last week in their attempt to enter the U.S., while interrogating O’Rourke on his stance on immigration and the detention centers imprisoning migrant children. “In Colorado, we call that kidnapping,” said Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper on Thursday. “I will release children from their cages,” Harris said. Author Marianne Williamson referred to it as “collective child abuse.”

After both rounds of the debate had concluded, data from PredictWise, a prediction market aggregator that determines each candidate’s odds of winning the nomination, suggest some of the hopefuls may have started to shift their position in the race, even if marginally or temporarily. From the start of Wednesday’s debate to the end of Thursday’s, Harris’s odds increased by a net of two points to a 15% chance of winning the nomination. Warren, Booker, Sanders and Castro also gained ground. Biden, who led in the polls entering the debate, saw his odds drop by a net of three points to 26%.

With the frontrunners dominating much of Thursday’s debate, the stakes were high for lesser-known candidates to try to get a word in: Thursday night might have been the first time many Americans had heard of them, let alone what they had to say.

When questions were directed to other candidates early in the debate on Thursday, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand jumped in—usually to speak over another candidate. She interrupted other candidates or the moderators the most. On Wednesday, former Maryland Representative John Delaney, tallied the most interruptions, though most of his were attempts to catch the attention of moderators from his podium at the end of the debate stage.

With the conclusion of the first Democratic debate for the 2020 presidential election, all eyes are on the 20 candidates who participated (and the four who didn’t) to see which campaigns can build momentum and which may be nearing their end. For those who may have stumbled, there’s always the next debate in July—if they can make it that far.