The top 10 candidates took the stage in Atlanta on Wednesday night for the fifth Democratic primary debate. We, too, are exhausted. On stage were the four top-polling contenders—Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Bernie Sanders—plus Andrew Yang, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Tom Steyer, and Tulsi Gabbard. They fielded questions from four moderators from MSNBC and the Washington Post—all of whom were women! A welcome change. Despite this debate being about 40 minutes shorter than earlier ones, the candidates covered a wider range of topics, including the usuals (Medicare-for-All, impeachment, the wealth tax) and some new ones (including housing, paid family leave, and voting rights).
Here’s what went down:
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Unlike previous debates, tonight’s moderators kicked things off with the question Democratic voters care about the most: how will you make the case against Trump. They started with impeachment and then covered a lot of new ground beyond the topic of health care, which dominated the first few debates.
WOMEN. FINALLY.
Tonight’s panel of all women moderators asked strong questions on all fronts, but it was not a coincidence that some of the most interesting questions were about previously under-covered areas in debates, such as childcare, paid family leave, and reproductive health. Kamala Harris detailed her plan for paid family leave and Amy Klobuchar stated that she would codify Roe v. Wade into law.
On the topic of abortion, Elizabeth Warren was asked if there’s room for people who don’t support abortion rights in the Democratic Party—specifically anti-choice Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was just re-elected in Louisiana. Instead of taking the bait, Warren emphasized that the Democratic party fundamentally stands for "protecting the right of a woman to be able to make decisions about her own body,” and that that’s what she will fight for.
HIGH HOPES?
Pete Buttigieg has climbed to the top of the polls in Iowa, but he didn’t face as many attacks from other candidates as we expected. He did, however, take a hit from Kamala Harris, who, without naming names, emphasized that the Democratic nominee has to answer to black voters and rebuild the diverse Obama coalition to win. (Buttigieg is currently polling at zero percent among black Democratic voters in South Carolina—a key early primary state where 61 percent of 2016 primary voters were black). Buttigieg agreed with Kamala, but then awkwardly said that he “welcomes the challenge of connecting with black voters in America”...
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Cory Booker also had a chance to attack Buttigieg when he circled back to address issues for black voters (he emphasized that he’s been one since he was 18), but instead took the opportunity to light up Biden for opposing the legalization of marijuana: “I thought you might’ve been high when you said it… because marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people, and it’s why the war on drugs has been a war on black and brown people." Biden’s response? He thinks we should “decriminalize marijuana, period,” but wants to study its long-term effects.
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VOTING RIGHTS
This debate took place in Georgia, where just last year Gov. Brian Kemp stole an election from Stacey Abrams using widespread voter-suppression tactics. For the first time in 32 debates between 2016 and 2020, the candidates were asked what they’d do at the federal level to ensure that every voter has equal access to the ballot box.
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As Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker reminded us during the debate, Stacey Abrams would be governor of Georgia were it not for voter suppression. And thanks to all of you, Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight are so close to hiring voter protection teams in all the states we need to win in 2020, so let's help them get there. In October, we hit our goal of raising $1 million to jump start hiring these teams. In our last push of the year, we're going to try and get to $2 million. It's a big number, but with your help we can reach this goal → votesaveamerica.com/fairfight
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Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker got into an early back-and-forth over Warren’s proposed wealth tax, which consists of a two percent tax on net worth above $50 million and a six percent tax on net worth above $1 billion. Warren pointed to the proposal as her plan for uniting the country, describing tax hikes on the wealthy as an important tool to “build an America that works for the people,” in generating revenue that would fund universal child care and education initiatives.
Booker, who hasn’t yet qualified for the next debate, had a big motivation to make a splash tonight. He jumped on the chance to debate Warren on taxation, saying that while he agrees with other measures to raise taxes on the wealthy, he disagrees with the wealth tax, and that Democrats shouldn’t just be talking about taxes, but “about how to grow wealth” in disadvantaged communities. Booker called the proposal “cumbersome” and “hard to evaluate,” and Warren hit back with “I’m tired of freeloading billionaires.” Warren’s wealth tax has drawn fire from a parade of prominent rich people, but it’s overwhelmingly popular in polling.
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- After Tulsi Gabbard criticized the Democratic party establishment yet again (it’s kind of her schtick), Kamala Harris responded in full force, accusing Gabbard of spending “four years, full-time on Fox News criticizing Obama,” and then buddying up to Steve Bannon.
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- Amy Klobuchar highlighted the differences between how men and women are judged on the campaign trail. Asked about an earlier comment she made that a woman with Buttigieg’s credentials wouldn’t be on the debate stage, Klobuchar stated: “Pete is qualified to be up on this stage...but what I said is true. Women are held to a higher standard. Otherwise we could play a game called name your favorite woman president, which we can’t do because it has all been men.”
As fun as it sounds, we don’t recommend playing “Name Your Favorite President” at Thanksgiving dinner this year.
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- At one point, Joe Biden claimed he had the support of the only black woman ever elected to the Senate. Cut to Kamala Harris, another black woman elected to the Senate, laughing on the other side of the stage: “That’s not true, the other one is here!”
- Last month (forever ago, we know) Warren took heat from moderate candidates like Klobuchar and Buttigieg about how to pay for Medicare-for-All. She recently released plans for how she would both pay for it and implement it, by breaking it into two phases. Moderators went to Warren first to defend her plan in red states even though Bernie, as he reminded us (again), “wrote the damn bill.”
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