Sen. Elizabeth Warren was one of the candidates to get the most name drops after the second Democratic primary debate. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 2020 elections These are the winners of the post-debate media competition

Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren bounced out of the second round of debates in Detroit with the most name-mentions in network and cable news coverage last week, according to an analysis by a digital analytics firm shared first with POLITICO.

Deep Root Analytics, a Republican-aligned consulting firm, tracked the number of times Democratic presidential candidates were mentioned in the 48 hours after the two debates last week. The firm modeled those mentions against their projections for the number of swing voters watching the six network and cable stations during that time.


The survey showed that the top-polling candidates — Biden, Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris — dominated post-debate conversation.

Biden, who came under fire from many of his primary opponents on the debate stage, reached 384.7 million impressions among swing voters nationally, Deep Root estimated. Biden also accounted for about 40 percent of the conversation on all six network and cable stations in the two days following last Wednesday night’s debate.

Warren and Sanders reached 230.5 million and 208.1 million impressions, respectively, after last Tuesday’s debate, when the pair presented a progressive tag-team against several more moderate candidates. Together, Warren and Sanders accounted for more than half of the TV news coverage. Harris, who tangled with Biden on health care policy, reached 200.4 million impressions.

Those impressions can “quantify the post-debate narrative” and chart candidates’ national name recognition, said David Seawright, Deep Root Analytics' chief revenue officer.

“Post-debate coverage matters as much, if not more, than the debate itself,” Seawright said. “Our hypothesis is that by quantifying the audience value of earned media, you can effectively use it as an early predictor of changes in the polls because so much of the polling in a crowded primary is reflective of name recognition."

For presidential candidates, getting network and cable news coverage is essential to build name recognition among potential voters and draw small-dollar donor support online. It’s particularly pressing for the more than dozen contenders who haven’t qualified for the third debate, scheduled for September in Houston.

Two lower-polling candidates were able to cut into the cable and network conversation: Marianne Williamson and Cory Booker.

Williamson, the author and self-help guru who appeared alongside Warren and Sanders last Tuesday night, drew outsized attention for memorable and unconventional one-liners, warning of a “dark psychic force of collectivized hatred.” She also delivered a frank answer on reparations, arguing that “great injustice has to do with the fact that there was 250 years of slavery followed by another hundred years of domestic terrorism.” She received 68.7 million impressions, earning a quarter of the mentions during ABC’s coverage.

The following night, Booker took on Biden in pointed exchanges over race relations, criticizing the former vice president for invoking President Barack Obama when it was “convenient.” That fiery dialogue earned the New Jersey senator 111.1 million impressions.

It’s not clear yet whether those candidates will see a polling bump potentially based on their post-debate coverage.

Noticeably, though, some candidates didn’t crack into the TV coverage at all. Sen. Amy Klobuchar wasn’t mentioned once on NBC, following her time on the debate stage, while former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke did not get named on NBC or ABC in the 48 hours after the debate.

Outside of the top four candidates — Biden, Warren, Sanders and Harris — the rest of the field accounted for less than half of the TV conversation following the debates.