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Primary Debates

First Debate: NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 and Thursday, June 27, 2019 at Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, FL.

Grouping 1: Wednesday June 26

de Blasio, Ryan, Castro, Booker, Warren, O'Rourke, Klobuchar, Gabbard, Inslee, and Delaney.

Grouping 2: Thursday June 27

Williamson, Hickenlooper, Yang, Buttigieg, Biden, Sanders, Harris, Gillibrand, Bennet, and Swalwell.

Not Qualifying:

Bullock, Messam and Moulton.

Pre-Debate Press Releases: Process | Candidates | Interest Groups | RNC

Photo: NBC News

Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at 9:00-11:00 p.m. E.T.

Post-Debate | Video | Transcript

Sponsors: NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo.

Candidates: Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Tim Ryan and Elizabeth Warren.

Moderators: Hour 1 - Lester Holt with Savannah Guthrie and Jose Diaz-Balart. Hour 2 - Lester Holt with Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow.

Audience: "The DNC and Florida Democratic Party...made a concerted effort to ensure that the audience for our debate reflects the community we are in. Tickets to the debate in Miami have been offered to organizational representatives, elected officials and a wide variety of local activists. Members of the Florida Congressional delegation offered recommendations of local organizers, activists, business owners and faith leaders from their districts. Leaders and grassroots activists from the Florida chapters of gun violence prevention, environmental, women, youth, immigration, LGBTQ+ , civil rights, labor faith and tribal organizations have all been invited. Each of the twenty campaigns were also afforded the opportunity to invite supporters to the debate for their night." (The campaigns each received 20 tickets).

Broadcast: Live on NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo and streamed "online for free on NBC News' digital platforms, including NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, the NBC News Mobile App and OTT apps, in addition to Telemundo's digital platforms."

Format: Two hours in five segments with four commercial breaks. 60 seconds to respond to questions and 30 seconds for follow ups. No opening statements. 45-second closing statements.

Overview: Although NBC and the DNC held a drawing to ensure a random mix of leading and longshot candidates over the two nights of the debate, the lineup for the first night led some observers to characterize this as an undercard debate (plus Elizabeth Warrren). The RNC noted, "The candidates on stage tonight combine for a whopping 27% of Morning Consult’s 2020 Democrat primary poll, with Elizabeth Warren accounting for nearly half of that total (13% out of 27%). Tonight’s debate is clearly for the Junior Varsity candidates only."

There was significant discussion on health care, led off by Lester Holt's show of hands question, "Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?" Only de Blasio and Warren raised their hands.

On immigration, Castro argued for repealing Section 1325 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which he said the administration is using to criminalize crossing those crossing the border and justify separating children from families. Castro called on the other candidates to join him; he and O'Rourke had a rather pointed exchange on the subject.

Holt posed another show of hands question on the Iran deal, asking, "Who as president would sign on to the 2015 nuclear deal as it was originally negotiated?" All but Booker agreed.

An audio glitch at the start of the second hour led to an unplanned commercial break.

Chuck Todd elicited a range of responses when he sought one or two word answers from each of the candidates to the question of "what is the biggest threat – what is – who is the geopolitical threat to the United States?"

At points during the debate, Booker, Castro and O'Rourke spoke briefly in Spanish.

Speaking times significantly favored the leading candidates; Booker had the most, more than twice as much time Inslee, who had the least.

	Booker	O'Rourke	Warren	Castro	Klobuchar	Ryan	Delaney	Gabbard	de Blasio	Inslee
CBS News	11:06	10:33	9:31	8:47	8:27	7:41	6:45	6:39	5:54	5:05
CNN	10:55	10:39	9:17	8:53	8:25	7:21	6:46	7:22	5:40	4:52
The Hill	10:35	10:15	9:07	8:13	8:06	6:54	6:17	6:15	5:20	4:41

Google Trends reported Cory Booker was the top searched Democratic candidate during the debate followed by Tulsi Gabbard and Beto O'Rourke, while John Delaney finished last. Google Trends also reported, "Searches for Mitch McConnell (@senatemajldr) have spiked +2,000% to make him the top trending search query on all of Google during the second half of the debate." Nielsen reported an estimated 15.3 million viewers tuned in on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.

See also:
Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson, Brooks Jackson, Robert Farley, Angelo Fichera, Jessica McDonald and D'Angelo Gore. "FactChecking the First 2020 Democratic Debate." FactCheck.org, June 27, 2019.

Phillip Bump. Who were viewers Googling during the first Democratic debate? Booker and Gabbard. The Washington Post, June 26, 2019.

Jenny Lee. "Miami Debate 1: Search interest in the Democratic candidates during the debate." Flourish, June 26, 2019.

Photo: NBC News

Thursday, June 27, 2019 at 9:00-11:00 p.m. E.T.

Post-Debate | Video | Transcript

Sponsors: NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo.

Candidates: Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, Bernie Sanders, Eric Swalwell, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang.

Moderators: Hour 1 - Lester Holt with Savannah Guthrie and Jose Diaz-Balart. Hour 2 - Lester Holt with Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow.

Format: Two hours in five segments with four commercial breaks. 60 seconds to respond to questions and 30 seconds for follow ups. No opening statements. 45-second closing statements.

Overview: Four leading candidates were grouped in the center of the stage, and oldsters Biden and Sanders were situated in the middle next to each other. Some expected that there might be clashes between the two, but it was the generational lines that were more sharply drawn, as when Swalwell said Biden should pass the torch.

But the big story of the night was Harris' challenge to Biden. The trouble for Biden began at a fundraiser in New York on June 18 when he recounted working with segregationist senators as an example of civility. Booker had made an issue of this on the campaign trail, but Harris drove home the point during the debate. "[It] was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing," Harris said. "And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me."

A Holt show-of-hands question could pose problems for the eventual nominee. Holt asked, "Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants." All ten candidates raised their hands.

Biden had the most speaking time and Yang the least. (Yang alleged that his microphone had been turned off when he was not addressing questions, which NBC denied).

	Biden	Harris	Sanders	Buttigieg	Gillibrand	Bennet	Swalwell	Williamson	Hickenlooper	Yang
CBS News	13:50	12:36	11:40	10:25	7:42	6:47	6:16	5:01	4:56	3:00
CNN	13:18	12:09	10:53	10:27	7:43	7:59	4:47	4:52	5:04	2:56
The Hill	12:53	11:37	10:38	10:13	7:21	7:57	4:24	4:49	5:00	2:50

Nielsen reported that an estimated 18.1 million viewers tuned in on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo for the Thursday night debate, making it, according to CNN, "the highest-rated Democratic match-up in Nielsen ratings history."

Google Trends reported Marianne Williamson was the top searched Democratic candidate during the debate followed by Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, while Michael Bennet finished last.

Closing Statements

Analysis: To the Left

Broadly debate among the Democratic candidates has seemed to be tilting to the left or progressive side of the spectrum.

"Watching Democratic candidates' hands go up in Miami, one after another, to support deep, radical changes in our country – Medicare For All, free college, and a Green New Deal – made me think one thing:We can do this, America. We can take back our country for progressive values, and win policies that will create a nation where everybody is in, and nobody out. We can do this."
- email from People's Action

"All of the Democrats tripped over each other in a race to see who could stand out as the most leftist candidate, threatening government control of every aspect of people’s lives. We are many months away from seeing who the Democrat nominee will be, but one thing is clear -- President Trump will be the hands-down victor after each and every Democrat debate.”
- Kayleigh McEnany, National Press Secretary
Donald J. Trump for President

Around the country local Democatic parties and clubs, interest groups, political leaders and the campaigns themselves are organizing debate watch events.