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Night one on the debate stage we had the Orange group, consisting of Sen. Corey Booker (NJ), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), former HUD secretary Julian Castro, Gov. Jay Inslee (Washington), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio), and former congressman John Delaney.

These Democratic candidates were joined by moderators Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Jose Diaz-Balart, Rachel Maddow, and Chuck Todd. Over the course of two hours, these fifteen individuals covered a little over fifteen topics, including income inequality, healthcare, and gun rights. Holt, Guthrie, and Diaz Balart covered the first hour, keeping the candidates to a strict time limit and calling them out when they skirted questions with off-topic answers. In the second hour, Maddow and Todd moderated, relaxing the reigns quite a bit to allow the candidates more time to rebut answers.

Throughout this debate it was surprising to see that many candidates agree that universal health care is a human right, a woman’s right to choose and control her own body is fundamental, climate change is one of the most important issue, and income inequality is running rampant in society. Most of the division in ideals occurred as candidates were discussing how they were going to execute these plans, getting really into the weeds about policies.

When the debate started, it was clear that Elizabeth Warren was the most popular among this group. However, it was Julian Castro that surfaced to the top and Beto O’Rourke who floundered quite a bit, as he was the only candidate contested multiple times for his stance on policy issues.

While it’s still early to see a front runner in this group of candidates, each individual debated with the civility we lacked during the Republican debates we witnessed almost four years ago. It’ll be interesting to see who the American people think spoke to the vast population of democratic, independent, and Republican voters and non-voters.

What I would like for tomorrow’s debate is for the moderators to continue to keep candidates pressed to answer questions instead of avoiding them and for NBC to queue the marquees under each candidate while they speak.

My quick thoughts and opinions on each candidate:

Senator Booker didn’t get a lot of time, but he made the most of his time, advocating for LGBTQ youth and Trans black people. He was incredibly passionate about stopping the criminalization of immigration and addition. However, he did manage to fumble a question about how his federal buy-back plan and gun reform plan was going to work.

Senator Warren came out strong, reiterating some of the plans she’s already put forth. Known for having a plan for nearly everything. She answered she even has a plan for Mitch McConnell, in the event of a democratic president and republican senate.

Congressman O’Rourke came out incredibly weak and off putting. The first of a few candidates to begin the debate speaking Spanish, it was clear that he was out of his league among these candidates who have been putting in the work to solidify their policy stances. At one point, Julian Castro even called out O’Rourke for not doing his homework on immigration. What started as a strong campaign, whittled down to a sputter for this former congressman. It’ll be interesting to see if he picks up steam after this debate, but my opinion is he’ll taper out quickly if he can’t muster the same energy he had during his congressional race against Ted Cruz.

Senator Klobuchar also had a strong night, but it’s clear she isn’t as progressive as some of her colleagues. She stopped short of free college education to say just community college should be free. She insisted that private insurance should stand and government health care should be added on (a more popular theme among candidates). She insisted that 1325 should stand to avoid sex trafficking and drug trafficking, where many candidates, including Castro thought it should be stricken down. She insists she’s trying to be realistic, but she might just be more moderate to appeal to people like those in her state of Minnesota.

As I stated earlier, former HUD secretary Julian Castro came out as the clear winner of tonight’s debate. Speaking at times in both English and Spanish he had strong answers about immigration, specifically stating that section 1325 of Title 8 should be repealed. While every agreed in a woman’s right to choose, he took it a step further stating his belief in reproductive freedom and reproductive justice. He also spoke passionately about reforming the policing system, drawing out the differences in the arrest of Dylan Roof and Eric Gardner, Sandra Bland and so many others. I hadn’t followed his campaign thus far, but I’ll be sure to tune in to hear what he has to say in the future.

Gov. Inslee had a few good moments. He is THE advocate for climate change, and he was the first to suggested investing in innovative technology that will lead to clean energy. He also had a few shining moments tonight, including towards the end of the debate, where he was the only candidate to note that the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States is President Trump.

Representative Gabbard came out tonight as the strong arm with military experience, who knows the cost of war, and who is ready to tackle the issue we currently have with Iran. Her shining moment tonight was wrangling the other candidates on health care and her defense of pulling out of Afghanistan, arguing that staying engaged is not working. The Taliban was in the Middle East before the U.S. went to war, and they’ll be there after we leave. It’ll be interesting to see how she addresses topics that are outside of her comfort zone.

Mayor De Blasio spent the night advocating for “the heart of the Democratic Party,” which he later defined as working class people. He also managed to slip in he’s the only candidate with a black son and that war should only be conducted with congressional approval. He wasn’t at the very bottom of the list, but he certainly didn’t make it to the middle.

Representative Ryan also agreed that the Democratic party should be the party of working-class people, and he differs himself from De Blasio by saying that the working class is “white, black, and LGBTQ.” That is a sentiment that isn’t held by anyone else I’ve seen use that term. Ryan also tussled with Tulsi Gabbard about the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. He insisted that the U.S. should remain involved in this area.

Former congressman Dulaney spent a good chunk of time fighting to speak. It was clear he had passion, but he simply didn’t have time in his favor. He did get in a word to say no person is above the law, a direct response about whether or not President Trump should be prosecuted after he’s vacated the Office of the President.

Will you be watching tonight's debate?

Alexandria Criner

Writing since June 2019 · 2 stories contributed