Primary Debates

     ...                         Williamson, Ryan, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren, O'Rourke, Hickenlooper, Delaney, and Bullock.


                                Grouping 2: Wednesday July 31                 

Bennet, Gillibrand, Castro, Booker, Biden, Harris, Yang, Gabbard, Inslee, de Blasio

Not Qualifying:
Messam, Moulton, Sestak, Steyer


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

There were a couple of significant differences from the debate rules used in the first debate.  As announced on July 9:  "There will be no show of hands or one-word, down-the-line questions." and "A candidate who consistently interrupts will have his or her time reduced."  The debate focused attention on the battleground state of Michigan, which Trump carried by 10,704 votes (0.23 percentage points) in 2016, the closest margin of any state. 

Photo: CNN

Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at 8:25 p.m. to 10:25 p.m. E.T.

Post-Debate  |  Video (+)  |  Transcript

Sponsor:  CNN.

Candidates:  Bullock, Buttigieg, Delaney, Hickenlooper, Klobuchar, O'Rourke, Ryan, Sanders, Warren, Williamson.

Moderators:  Dana Bash, Don Lemon and Jake Tapper.

Audience: 

Broadcast:  On CNN and CNN en Español. The debates will also be simulcast on CNN International.  CNN’s debates will stream live in their entirety, without requiring log–in to a cable provider, exclusively to CNN.com’s homepage, across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Android TV. The full debate nights will be available exclusively the day following the airing on demand via cable/satellite systems, on CNNgo (at CNN.com/go on your desktop, smartphone, and tablets, and via CNNgo OTT apps), and CNN mobile apps on iOS and Android.

Format:  Two hours. Opening and closing statements. 60 seconds to respond to a moderator-directed question, and 30 seconds for responses and rebuttals.

Overview:  The major story line out of this debate was the differences between the more progressive candidates Warren and Sanders and more centrist / moderate candidates, notably Delaney, Hickenlooper and Ryan.  Warren had the most speaking time, more than 18 minutes, and Williamson the least, less than 9 minutes.

*CBS figures do not include opening and closing statements.

The viewing audience was much smaller than for the first debate.  According to Nielsen Fast National data, 8.7 million total TV viewers watched the debate, making it "CNN’s second highest Democratic debate on record (after Las Vegas, Oct. 2015)." There were also 2.8 million digital live streams.

Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. E.T.

Video (1, 2)  |  Transcript

Sponsor:  CNN.

Candidates:  Bennet, Biden, Booker, Castro, de Blasio, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Harris, Inslee, Yang.

Moderators:  Dana Bash, Don Lemon and Jake Tapper.

Audience: 

Broadcast: On CNN and CNN en Español. The debates will also be simulcast on CNN International.  CNN’s debates will stream live in their entirety, without requiring log–in to a cable provider, exclusively to CNN.com’s homepage, across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Android TV. The full debate nights will be available exclusively the day following the airing on demand via cable/satellite systems, on CNNgo (at CNN.com/go on your desktop, smartphone, and tablets, and via CNNgo OTT apps), and CNN mobile apps on iOS and Android. 

Format:  Two hours. Opening and closing statements. 60 seconds to respond to a moderator-directed question, and 30 seconds for responses and rebuttals.

Overview:  This debate had a very different dynamic than night one, with Biden as the center of attention.

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Opening Statements for the Two Nights