Seventeen Democrats remain in the running for the 2020 Democratic nomination. And the number of debate qualifiers, like the number of hopeful Democrats, has dwindled. Only ten candidates met the donor and polling thresholds (165,000 unique donors, 600 in 20 different states, and either a 5% polling average in two early state polls or 3% in four DNC sanctioned polls) for the debate: former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Cory Booker (NJ), Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Senator Kamala Harris (CA), Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN), Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), philanthropist Tom Steyer, Senator Elizebeth Warren (MA), and businessman Andrew Yang. The fifth debate was hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post in Atlanta, Georgia, and notably featured the first all-female panel of debate moderators.

Pre-Debate Context

The debate came in the middle of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, a story that has dominated the headlines ever since the news of his call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky. Earlier in the day, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland delivered his opening statements in the hearing, in which he candidly admitted the presence of a “quid pro quo” in the phone call. Impeachment has pushed the 2020 Democratic candidates into discussions about who could beat Trump in a general election or if Trump will even remain in office for his full four-year term.

In the polls, Elizabeth Warren has seeming been on the decline since her October performance, according to Real Clear Politics. However, some sources, like The Economist, still place Warren in a closer range to Joe Biden. Mayor Pete Buttigieg also took the lead in recent Iowa polls, putting him in the spotlight on the debate stage.

Winners

Amy Klobuchar

In the last debate, Senator Amy Klobuchar led a round of attacks against Senator Elizabeth Warren, desperately hoping for her stand out moment in the campaign. While her previous performance didn’t garner a winner status for her, she made a mark in the November debate. The moderators offered her the second question of the night concerning impeachment, and she delivered a strong answer supporting the process. She continued to gain momentum as the night progressed, especially when disputing claims that a woman couldn’t take on Donald Trump. She pointed out that women are held to a higher standard than men in many aspects of our society, and noted, “If you think a woman can’t beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day.” Overall, Klobuchar had solid moments throughout the night that may make her competition for fellow moderate candidates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg.

Amy Klobuchar, “if you think a woman can’t beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day. ” #Democraticdebate #demdebate pic.twitter.com/kLthZHPXSb — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) November 21, 2019

Pete Buttigieg

Mayor Pete’s campaign had been a long shot in a field led by significantly older Democrats with experience in Washington, but his recent bumps in Iowa and New Hampshire have brought him momentum and made him a target. Despite facing attacks from higher polling candidates, he didn’t lose sight of his goal to spread his message. Ultimately, his strategy worked. He effectively spent much of his time talking about his core beliefs and plans as a candidate, to assure voters that even though he has never held an office in Washington, he understands the real plight that Americans face daily. He even managed to successfully attack Tulsi Gabbard’s past with foreign policy, questioning her decision to meet with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Although Buttigieg may not be ahead in national polling, if he translates his energy from the most recent debate to the campaign trail, he may be able to boost his numbers in other key states ahead of the primaries.

Cory Booker

Booker’s campaign and policies haven’t been the most notable in this election cycle, leaving him in a forgettable position in the past debates. At the beginning of the night, he brought some well-delivered answers to the stage, but his presence in the debate became most relevant after he brought up the importance of black voters. Offering a different narrative than white candidates, Booker simply stated that he knew the perspective of a black voter because he’d “been one since I turned 18,” rather than polling and focus groups that white rely on. He continued to command attention on marijuana legalization, joking about how he thought Joe Biden might have been high when he opposed legalization.

“Marijuana is already legal for privileged people. The war on drugs is a war on black and brown people” @CoryBooker #DemocraticDebate #DemDebates #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/qOTBZPWbAO — Khary Penebaker, Fx (@kharyp) November 21, 2019

Kamala Harris

Undoubtedly, Kamala Harris has warmed up to the debate stage. Throughout the debate, she seemed comfortable behind her podium answering questions about policy and demonstrated a level of confidence she had yet to show viewers before, even amidst her declining poll numbers. She repeatedly highlighted the wage gap between men and women of different races and advocated for the protection of black and brown women, who have historically been hit hardest by discriminatory legislation. Her strong positions on issues like paid family leave and abortion also shone through as she advocated for women’s rights, and she joined Cory Booker in discussing how politicians have failed black voters. Additionally, Buttigieg avenged Harris’ July clash against Representative Tulsi Gabbard by mentioning Gabbard’s meeting with Bashar al-Assad, a long-overdue victory for Harris. She also reminded the audience of her previous confrontation with Joe Biden as she asserted “I’m right here!” when he forgot to recognize her as a black woman who had been elected to Congress. Harris walked off the stage with one of her strongest performances to of the year.

Losers

Joe Biden

For more than half of the debate, Biden actually gave his best debate performance to date. While the former vice president didn’t deliver anything spectacular, for the most part, he avoided the type of catastrophically embarrassing moments that have plagued his previous four performances. He had a semi-successful attempt at appealing to a sense of hope for a future filled with bipartisan cooperation when questioned about his relationship with Republican members of Congress, but after a brief spat with Cory Booker about marijuana, his performance took a turn for the worst. However, any remaining faith in him was crushed in another confrontation with Senator Kamala Harris. While discussing endorsements, Biden claimed that the only black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate (referring to Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun) had endorsed his campaign, despite another black female senator standing a few feet away from him. Harris quickly refuted him, exclaiming “I’m right here,” an eerily similar interaction to their confrontation about busing during Harris’ childhood in the June debates. Biden tried to correct his mistake, but his comment diminished his presence for the debate

Tulsi Gabbard

Aside from one attack on Kamala Harris in the July debate, Representative Tulsi Gabbard has flown under the radar at many debates. She tried to push herself to the front of the pack by referencing her military background and experience on various Congressional committees. The most common talking point for Gabbard has always been her odd foreign policy stances that favor leaving “regime change wars” and remaining in areas fighting terrorism, but until this debate, no one had mentioned her history meeting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. However, Mayor Pete Buttigieg finally brought light to the issue. In the midst of a spat about comments Buttigieg made on U.S.-Mexico relations, Mayor Pete questioned Gabbard’s judgment in meeting with the dictator. Gabbard unsuccessfully attempted to spin the discussion into one about courage, but she left viewers with no real answers for meeting with a brutal dictator.

Tom Steyer

Somehow, in some way, by some miracle for Steyer, he made it to the November debate stage. Following the pattern of his appearances in previous debates, the billionaire philanthropist was forgettable. While he received some speaking time on climate change and housing, which he used more effectively than he did in October, the bar had already been set low for him. He and Yang were the only candidates on the stage with no previous positions in a political office or the military, but unlike Yang, the policies and values of Steyer’s campaign are ambiguous. Sure, he’s against climate change (and he’ll let you know he’s got the money to fight it), and sure, he’s for the impeachment of President Trump, but neither of those issues gives him the solid platform a legitimate campaign needs. Nothing about Steyer stuck out throughout the night, and his time to make an impression on voters is running out, making him yet again, one of the night’s losers.

Conclusions

As we barrel toward the primaries, the competition between Democrats has intensified. Previous winners Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were lackluster in the fifth round of debate, allowing the younger candidates to push their platforms forward. The Democrats are split between many lines; age, gender, and race, but most importantly, the moderates versus the progressives. Moderates like Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar hope to flip independent and willing Trump voters to their side with promises of bipartisan cooperation, but progressives like Warren and Sanders want radical changes in institutions like health care and education. The 2020 Democratic Primary will ultimately become a question of these two factions and determine how the Democrats move forward against Trump, and the question of electability has also arisen. Although some voters may want to side with their moral conscious, many Democrats consider the possibility of their nominee beating Trump as a significant factor in their decisions to support certain candidates.

The December Debate is scheduled for December 19th, and candidates have until December 12th to meet the raised criteria for participation. Biden, Buttigieg, Harris, Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren have all met the heightened bar of receiving at least 4% in national polls or early state polls or receiving 6% in two-state polls, and to gain 200,000 donors. As we creep closer to the Primaries, the Democrats need to resolve their issue of the moderates versus progressives, otherwise, their worst nightmare of a second term of Donald Trump may become a reality.

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