Democratic presidential primary debate (June 26-27, 2019)
Date: November 3, 2020 |
 Donald Trump Joe Biden Howie Hawkins Jo Jorgensen
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The Democratic Party held a presidential primary debate over two days in Miami, Florida, on June 26-27, 2019. It was the first of 11 Democratic primary debates that took place during the 2020 presidential election.
The debate was limited to 20 candidates with 10 candidates participating each night. Twenty candidates met the fundraising and/or polling criteria to qualify for the debate.
This page provides an overview of the hosts, venue, moderators, qualifications, and participants.
Participants
Candidates had until June 12, 2019, to qualify for the first set of Democratic presidential debates. Under a new rule adopted by the Democratic National Committee in May 2019, the candidates were divided into two groups: those above and those below a polling average of 2 percent. These two groups were randomly and equally divided between both nights of the debate to avoid one debate being classified as an undercard event.[1]
Wednesday, June 26
- Cory Booker
- Julián Castro
- Bill de Blasio
- John Delaney
- Tulsi Gabbard
- Jay Inslee
- Amy Klobuchar
- Beto O'Rourke
- Tim Ryan
- Elizabeth Warren
Thursday, June 27
Debate overview: June 26, 2019
Video and transcript
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Candidate highlights
- Cory Booker said economic policy and gun regulations were not working in his community, which he described as low-income, black, and brown. He also discussed violence against transgender Americans.
- Julián Castro advocated establishing a Marshall Plan for Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. He also condemned the metering policy on migrants seeking asylum and said he would decriminalize illegal border crossings.
- Bill de Blasio criticized calls to keep private insurance as a healthcare option and shared his personal experiences as the son of a World War II veteran who took his own life and the father of a black son.
- John Delaney opposed Medicare for All and said that Democrats should focus on lowering pharmaceutical prices, infrastructure, and job creation, rather than the Mueller report or impeachment proceedings.
- Tulsi Gabbard said that nuclear war was the greatest threat to national security and called for the U.S. to return to a nuclear agreement with Iran. She also discussed her shift on LGBT policy, coming from a socially conservative household to serving alongside LGBT servicemembers.
- Jay Inslee highlighted his executive experience in Washington, saying he was the only candidate who passed laws on abortion and health insurance. He also discussed climate change and his support for unions.
- Amy Klobuchar responded to Inslee by saying there were “three women on this stage” who also fought for abortion. She discussed her electability, saying she had won districts in Minnesota that went for Trump by double digits.
- Beto O'Rourke defended private insurance as a healthcare option and said pharmaceutical companies need to be held accountable for their connection to the opioid crisis.
- Tim Ryan criticized General Motors for closing a facility Lordstown, Ohio, and manufacturing cars in Mexico after receiving a tax break. He also said the center of the Democratic Party needed to shift from “coastal and elitist and Ivy League” to “the forgotten communities.”
- Elizabeth Warren joined de Blasio in being the only candidates on stage to support abolishing private health insurance. She also named climate change as the greatest threat to the United States.
By the numbers
Debate overview: June 27, 2019
Video and transcript
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Candidate highlights
- Michael Bennet condemned Citizens United and gerrymandering. He also shared the story of his mother’s separation from her family in Poland during World War II while discussing his involvement in the bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration legislation and family separations.
- Joe Biden defended his record on civil rights and school integration after Harris said he had worked with segregationists to oppose busing. He also said he could work with Republicans, pointing to a 2012 deal with Mitch McConnell on taxes.
- Pete Buttigieg said he had been unable to diversify South Bend’s police force and that systemic racism in policing needed to be addressed. He also said there was a tension between Christian values and family separations at the border.
- Kirsten Gillibrand said that “women’s reproductive rights are under assault” by the Republican Party and abortion policies created by compromise, like the Hyde Amendment, were unacceptable. She also said she supported a buy-in transition period before adopting a Medicare for All system.
- Kamala Harris criticized Biden’s record on busing and shared she was in the second class to integrate at her public school in California. She also opposed the Obama administration’s deportation policy, saying it affected the immigrant community’s ability to reach out to law enforcement.
- John Hickenlooper said Democrats needed to make clear they are not socialists. He said he supported the mission of the Green New Deal but opposed its job guarantee. On immigration, Hickenlooper said the Trump administration’s family separation policy was tantamount to kidnapping.
- Bernie Sanders said that under his policies, the middle class would pay more in taxes but less in healthcare and education. He also opposed court packing, called for rotating judges, and said that support for Roe v. Wade would be a litmus test for his federal judicial nominees
- Eric Swalwell quoted Biden to say that political leadership should pass to a new generation, particularly on issues of automation and climate change.
- Marianne Williamson said the discussion around healthcare needed to address the underlying causes of chronic illness, including pharmaceutical and environmental policies. She also directly challenged Trump, saying she would “harness love for political purposes.”
- Andrew Yang said Russia was the greatest geopolitical threat and that Chinese intellectual property theft should not be addressed through tariffs. He said the first international relationship he would reset would be China to seek cooperation on climate change, AI, and North Korea.
By the numbers
Qualifications
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On February 14, 2019, the Democratic National Committee released the following criteria for qualifying for the debate via polling or fundraising:[2]
Polling criteria
A candidate must receive 1 percent support or more in three national or early state polls—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada—publicly released between January 1, 2019, and 14 days prior to the date of the debate. Any candidate’s three qualifying polls must be conducted by different organizations, or if by the same organization, must be in different geographical areas. Qualifying polls are limited to the following organizations and institutions:
- Associated Press
- ABC News
- CBS News
- CNN
- Des Moines Register
- Fox News
- Las Vegas Review Journal
- Monmouth University
- NBC News
- New York Times
- National Public Radio
- Quinnipiac University
- Reuters
- University of New Hampshire
- Wall Street Journal
- USA Today
- Washington Post
- Winthrop University
Grassroots fundraising
Candidates may also qualify for the debate by providing verifiable evidence that they reached the following fundraising thresholds:
- Donations from at least 65,000 unique donors; and
- A minimum of 200 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.
Tiebreakers
No more than 20 candidates—10 candidates per night—can participate in the first and second debates. In the event that more than 20 candidates qualify, the DNC provided the following tiebreaker information in order of preference:
- Candidates who have reached both the polling and grassroots thresholds;
- Candidates with the highest polling averages; and
- Candidates with the highest number of contributions.
Who qualified?
The following chart shows which Democratic presidential candidates qualified for the debate and by which method.[3][4]
Qualifying candidates and Ballotpedia pageviews
The four noteworthy candidates who did not qualify for the first round of debates each garnered below-average pageviews on Ballotpedia in the eight weeks leading up to the June 12, 2019, qualifying cutoff.[5] During that time, the average Democratic campaign page recorded 18,433 pageviews. Wayne Messam (D) ranked 16th among the 24 candidates with 12,964 pageviews. Seth Moulton (D) and Mike Gravel (D) ranked 19th and 20th with 10,709 and 9,682 pageviews, respectively. Steve Bullock ranked 22nd with 8,690 pageviews. Pageviews were not a direct predictor of qualifying status; 23rd- and 24th-ranked candidates Eric Swalwell (D) and Bill de Blasio (D) both qualified.
Venue
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced in March 2019 that Miami, Florida, would host the first set of Democratic presidential primary debates.
“Miami is a vibrant and dynamic city that reflects the values and diversity of the Democratic Party. I couldn’t imagine a better setting for our first debate,” said DNC Chairman Tom Perez. "I’m thrilled that we’ll get the chance to showcase our terrific candidates to voters in Florida and across the nation."[6]
The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts was the venue for the event.
NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo broadcasted the debate live on June 26-27, 2019. The DNC called the media partnership agreement unprecendented, saying, "No debate has ever aired in prime time on back-to-back nights before."[2]
Democratic presidential primary debates, 2019-2020
- See also: Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.
History of televised presidential debates
Although the 1960 general election debate between John F. Kennedy (D) and Richard Nixon (R) is frequently cited as the first televised presidential debate, two came before it.
The first televised presidential debate took place on May 21, 1956, when an ABC affiliate in Miami broadcast a Democratic primary debate between Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver.[7] In the general election that year, Stevenson and incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower (R) used surrogates in a televised debate on November 4, 1956. They were represented by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (D) and Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R), respectively.[8]
The Kennedy-Nixon debates that took place four years later showed the importance of television as a visual medium, "Nixon, pale and underweight from a recent hospitalization, appeared sickly and sweaty, while Kennedy appeared calm and confident. As the story goes, those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon had won. But those listeners were in the minority. ... Those that watched the debate on TV thought Kennedy was the clear winner. Many say Kennedy won the election that night," TIME reported on the 50th anniversary of the event.[9]
While a handful of presidential primary debates were held between 1964 and 1972, the televised presidential debate did not become a staple of American politics until 1976.[10]
Overview
The following chart shows the number of presidential and vice presidential debates that took place in each election cycle between 1960 and 2024.
List of presidential debates, 1960-2024
The following table shows the date, location, and moderators for each presidential debate between 1960 and 2024.[11]
| Presidential debates, 1960-2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Location | Moderator |
| September 26, 1960 | Chicago, IL | Howard K. Smith, CBS News |
| October 7, 1960 | Washington, D.C. | Frank McGee, NBC |
| October 13, 1960 | Los Angeles, CA / New York, NY | Bill Shadel, ABC |
| October 21, 1960 | New York, NY | Quincy Howe, ABC News |
| September 23, 1976 | Philadelphia, PA | Edwin Newman, NBC News |
| October 6, 1976 | San Francisco, CA | Pauline Frederick, NPR |
| October 22, 1976 | Williamsburg, VA | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| September 21, 1980 | Baltimore, MD | Bill Moyers, PBS |
| October 28, 1980 | Cleveland, OH | Howard K. Smith, ABC News |
| October 7, 1984 | Louisville, KY | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| October 21, 1984 | Kansas City, MO | Edwin Newman, formerly NBC News |
| September 25, 1988 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 13, 1988 | Los Angeles, CA | Bernard Shaw, CNN |
| October 11, 1992 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 15, 1992 | Richmond, VA | Carole Simpson, ABC |
| October 19, 1992 | East Lansing, MI | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 6, 1996 | Hartford, CT | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 1996 | San Diego, CA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 3, 2000 | Boston, MA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 11, 2000 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 17, 2000 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| September 30, 2004 | Coral Gables, FL | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 8, 2004 | St. Louis, MO | Charles Gibson, ABC |
| October 13, 2004 | Tempe, AZ | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2008 | Oxford, MS | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 7, 2008 | Nashville, TN | Tom Brokaw, NBC |
| October 15, 2008 | Hempstead, NY | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| October 3, 2012 | Denver, CO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 2012 | Hempstead, NY | Candy Crowley, CNN |
| October 22, 2012 | Boca Raton, FL | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2016 | Hempstead, NY | Lester Holt, NBC |
| October 9, 2016 | St. Louis, MO | Martha Raddatz, ABC Anderson Cooper, CNN |
| October 19, 2016 | Las Vegas, NV | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| September 29, 2020 | Cleveland, OH | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| October 22, 2020 | Nashville, TN | Kristen Welker, NBC |
| June 27, 2024 | Atlanta, GA | Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, CNN |
| September 10, 2024 | Philadelphia, PA | David Muir and Linsey Davis, ABC |
See also
- Presidential candidates, 2020
- Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
- Republican presidential nomination, 2020
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
Footnotes
- ↑ Politico, "Dems institute rule to prevent 'undercard' debate in June," May 24, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Democratic National Committee, "DNC ANNOUNCES DETAILS FOR THE FIRST TWO PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATES," February 14, 2019
- ↑ FiveThirtyEight, "Are The Democratic Debates Already A Mess?" May 22, 2018
- ↑ FiveThirtyEight, "Here’s How The Democrats Will Limit The Debate Field If Too Many People Qualify," May 10, 2019
- ↑ Ballotpedia collects pageview statistics for presidential campaign pages on a Sunday-Saturday basis. This analysis uses pageviews recorded between April 21 and June 15, 2019. Joe Sestak, who launched his campaign on June 23, is not included in this analysis.
- ↑ Democratic National Committee, "FIRST DNC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATE TO BE HELD IN MIAMI," March 28, 2019
- ↑ Illinois Channel, "From 1956, the First Televised Presidential Debate," June 15, 2016
- ↑ United States Senate, "The First Televised Presidential Debate," accessed June 12, 2019
- ↑ TIME, "How the Nixon-Kennedy Debate Changed the World," September 23, 2010
- ↑ Center for Politics, "Eight Decades of Debate," July 30, 2015
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "Debate History," accessed September 28, 2020
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