Democratic presidential primary debate (September 12, 2019)

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The Democratic Party held a presidential primary debate on September 12, 2019, in Houston, Texas. It was the third of 11 Democratic primary debates that took place during the 2020 presidential election.

Candidates had until August 28, 2019, to qualify by reaching a grassroots fundraising threshold of 130,000 unique contributors and a polling threshold of 2 percent support or more in four eligible polls. For the full list of requirements, click here.

The debate was limited to up to 20 candidates with 10 candidates participating each night. The following 10 candidates qualified:

• Joe Biden
• Cory Booker
• Pete Buttigieg
• Julián Castro
• Kamala Harris
• Amy Klobuchar
• Beto O’Rourke
• Bernie Sanders
• Elizabeth Warren
• Andrew Yang

HIGHLIGHTS

Date: September 12, 2019

Location: Houston, Texas

Venue: Texas Southern University

Partners: ABC News and Univision

Moderators: Linsey Davis, David Muir, Jorge Ramos, and George Stephanopoulos

Debate overview

Video and transcript

• Watch the debate on ABC News' YouTube channel.

• Read the ABC News transcript of the debate here.

Candidate highlights

This section includes highlights for each presidential candidate with a focus on policy. The following paraphrased statements were compiled from the ABC News debate transcript. A candidate's opponents are generally not mentioned in his or her summary unless there was a significant exchange between them.

• Joe Biden emphasized the cost of other candidates’ healthcare plans and questioned how Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would pay for their proposals. He said his healthcare proposal would allow people to keep private insurance, with out-of-pocket expenses capped at $1,000. Biden said that criminal justice needed to focus on rehabilitation and that non-violent offenders should not be in jail. He said he was the only candidate to beat the NRA nationally and that buyback programs should be used on assault-style weapons. Biden defended the Obama administration’s immigration policies, saying children were not locked up and families were not separated. He said he would increase asylum processing. On trade, Biden said the issue with China was not the trade deficit but intellectual property theft and World Trade Organization violations. He said Afghanistan comprises three separate regions and cannot be put together as one country. On education, Biden said funding for poor schools should be tripled from $15 billion to $45 billion and that home conditions and learning should be improved. When asked about resilience, Biden discussed losing his wife and daughter when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate.

• Cory Booker said the party needed to unite to defeat Donald Trump. He said that while he supported Medicare for All, progress on healthcare should not be sacrificed on the altar of purity. He said there is systemic racism and environmental injustice and called for the creation of a White House Office on Hate Crimes. Booker said clemency should be given to 17,000 people who are serving time for non-violent drug-related offenses and that prison sentences are too long. He advocated a gun licensing program and said there needs to be more courageous empathy to effect change. Booker said the United States needed to strengthen its relationship with allies like Canada, Germany, and France. On climate change, Booker said he opposed corporate consolidation in factory farming. He also said discussions of the military should include improving conditions for veterans. Booker said education needed a holistic solution that includes raising teachers’ salaries and combating poverty. When asked about resilience, Booker pointed to his experience working with tenant leaders in Newark in 2002.

• Pete Buttigieg said his healthcare proposal, Medicare for All Who Want It, would give people the opportunity to see that the public alternative was better than private insurance. He criticized the tone of the debate when Joe Biden and Julián Castro argued over healthcare. To address systemic racism, Buttigieg proposed investing in black entrepreneurs and historically black colleges and universities. He said individuals who supported Donald Trump’s immigration policies were supporting racism. Buttigieg called for community renewal visas and city-issued municipal IDs. On trade, Buttigieg said Trump’s policies were making American leadership absent on the world stage. He said that under his administration, authorizations for the use of military force would have a built-in three-year sunset. On education, Buttigieg said teachers needed to be respected and paid more. When asked about resilience, Buttigieg pointed to his experience serving in the military as a gay soldier under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and acknowledging his sexuality when running for re-election as mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

• Julián Castro said the Democratic Party needed to build a young and diverse coalition to win. He said Joe Biden's healthcare plan would leave 10 million people uninsured and that Biden forgot what he said earlier in the debate about whether individuals would be automatically enrolled in Biden's plan. Castro said his plan would automatically enroll individuals into the system and allow them to hold onto private health insurance if they chose to. He said he was the first candidate to put forward a police reform plan. On immigration, Castro said Biden wanted to take credit for Barack Obama’s successes but didn’t want to be accountable for the critiques of the administration. Castro said he would not give up on DACA and that he would push for immigration legislation in his first 100 days in office. He said the United States should use leverage in trade negotiations to improve human rights in other countries and called for a Marshall Plan for Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. On education, he said schools were segregated because neighborhoods were segregated and that there needed to be more transparency and accountability from charter schools. When asked about resilience, Castro pointed to his resignation from a law firm to cast a city council vote against a former client’s development plan that he did not believe provided sufficient environmental protections.

• Kamala Harris directed her opening statement at Donald Trump, saying he would have been indicted but for the Department of Justice policy against charging sitting presidents with crimes. She said her Medicare for All proposal gave people a choice between a private and public plan and that Trump needed to be defeated because his administration was trying to get rid of protections for individuals with preexisting conditions. Harris discussed her record as a prosecutor and said she would shut down for-profit prisons on her first day in office. She also said she would take executive action to ban the import of AR-15 weapons. On trade, Harris said she was not a protectionist Democrat. She said China needed to be held accountable for intellectual property theft and substandard products. She also said the United States needed to work with China on the issue of North Korea. She said as attorney general of California, she took on fossil fuel companies. On education, Harris said she would invest in historically black colleges and universities to produce more black teachers. When asked about resilience, Harris pointed to her experience running for district attorney and attorney general as a black woman.

• Amy Klobuchar emphasized her Midwestern roots and said she wanted to be a president for all of America rather than half of the country. She said she supported creating a public option but opposed Bernie Sanders’ healthcare bill because it would eliminate private insurance. She also said she worked with Sanders on a legislative amendment to allow less expensive drugs to come into the United States from places like Canada. Klobuchar said that when she served as county attorney, she fought for justice for murdered black children, increased prosecution of white-collar crimes, and diversified the office. She said she would move forward on the Second Step Act, which would reduce sentences for non-violent offenders in local and state jails. Klobuchar said she supported what she called an “assault weapons” ban, magazine limitations, universal background checks, and closing certain gun-related loopholes. Klobuchar criticized the Trump administration’s tariff policy, saying it was harming farmers and could bankrupt the country. On climate change, Klobuchar said she would rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, bring back the Clean Power rules, and reestablish gas mileage standards. When asked about resilience, Klobuchar discussed her fight for extended hospital stays for new mothers before she entered public office.

• Beto O'Rourke said in his opening statement that the El Paso shooter was inspired to kill by Donald Trump and that the current state of politics incentivized fighting and making differences without distinctions. While discussing the racial wealth gap, O’Rourke said he would sign a reparations bill to address systemic racism. He said he supported a mandatory buyback of AR-15 and AK-47 rifles. On immigration, O’Rourke said American policy should be written in the image of diverse cities like Houston. He said that no child should be caged, there needed to be accountability for the deaths of seven individuals in immigration custody, and Dreamers should immediately be made U.S. citizens. O’Rourke called for zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, pre-disaster mitigation grants to vulnerable communities, renewable wind and solar energy technology, and regenerative agriculture. When asked about resilience, O’Rourke pointed to the survivors of the El Paso shooting.

• Bernie Sanders said the country was moving toward an oligarchic society and that he would challenge those in power. He defended the $30 trillion cost of his Medicare for All proposal, saying that the status quo would cost $50 trillion. He said his system would prevent people from going bankrupt because of a cancer diagnosis. Sanders said he opposed ending the filibuster and would instead use a budget reconciliation law to pass legislation on guns, Medicare, and climate change. He criticized NAFTA and said that wage stagnation was partly due to bad trade policies. Sanders said a difference between him and Joe Biden was Sanders’ vote against the use of military force in Iraq. He called Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a tyrant and said his definition of democratic socialism was reflected in Scandinavia and not Venezuela. On education, Sanders said every teacher should make at least $60,000 each year. When asked about resilience, Sanders pointed to his earlier unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate and governor in Vermont. Sanders was the fourth-most active participant, speaking for 13.7 minutes.

• Elizabeth Warren said she would partly pay for her Medicare for All proposal through a wealth tax on the richest individuals and corporations. She said families needed to consider the total cost of healthcare rather than their tax bill. She said her plan would prevent individuals from having to argue with insurance companies and having coverage denied. Warren said gun legislation cannot be passed until systemic issues of corruption are addressed. On immigration, Warren said she wanted to expand legal immigration and create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and their families. She also said there was a border crisis because Central America needed more assistance. On trade, Warren said human rights activists should be at the negotiating table for trade deals. Warren said troops in Afghanistan need to return home and that some problems abroad should be solved through diplomatic and economic solutions. She also endorsed Jay Inslee's climate change plan. On education, she said there should be universal childcare and universal pre-K for children under five. When asked about resilience, Warren pointed to her journey to law school after being dismissed from her teaching job because she was pregnant.

• Andrew Yang announced he would give $1,000 per month to 10 families who visited his campaign website as a demonstration of his Freedom Dividend proposal. He said health needed to be incentivized over revenue in the American healthcare system and pointed to the Cleveland Clinic as an example. Yang said he would return the level of immigration to what it was under the Obama administration. On trade, Yang said he would not immediately repeal tariffs against China. He also said he signed a pledge to end forever wars and that he did not believe the United States was good at rebuilding other countries. On education, Yang said student outcomes that are determined outside of the school, including student stress levels and income, could be better addressed by giving money directly to families and neighborhoods. When asked about resilience, Yang pointed to his experiences as an entrepreneur.

Qualifications

On May 29, 2019, the Democratic National Committee released the criteria for qualifying for the debate via polling and fundraising.

Polling criteria

A candidate must receive 2 percent support or more in four national or early state polls—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada—publicly released between June 28, 2019, and August 28, 2019. Any candidate’s four 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
• Monmouth University
• NBC News
• New York Times
• National Public Radio
• Quinnipiac University
• University of New Hampshire
• Wall Street Journal
• USA Today
• Washington Post
• Winthrop University

Grassroots fundraising

Candidates must also provide verifiable evidence that they reached the following fundraising thresholds:

• Donations from at least 130,000 unique donors; and
• A minimum of 400 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.

Discussion

Several candidates criticized the new debate criteria. Former Rep. John Delaney said, "I just don't understand why one of the criteria is this kind of money donor standard. The half of the American people that are having a hard time affording their basic necessities, it doesn't seem like they're probably contributing a lot of money to political campaigns." Sen. Michael Bennet said the party should not be emphasizing "national fundraising and cable television over the early states like New Hampshire."

DNC Chairman Tom Perez defended the criteria, which had doubled from the previous two debates. "We’ve said this all along, that in the fall we’re going to raise the threshold because that’s what we always do. You have to demonstrate that you’re making progress. And 2% is hardly a high bar in my judgment," Perez said. "You can’t win the presidency in the modern era if you can’t build relationships with the grassroots."

Who qualified?

The following chart shows which Democratic presidential candidates qualified for the debate and how far each candidate was from crossing the polling and donor thresholds based on media reports. To qualify, a candidate needed to have at least 130,000 unique contributors and have reached at least 2 percent in four eligible polls. Candidates in green reached both thresholds.

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.

2020 Democratic presidential primary debates
Debate	Date	Location	Host	Number of participants
First Democratic primary debate	June 26-27, 2019	Miami, Florida	NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo	20 candidates
Second Democratic primary debate	July 30-31, 2019	Detroit, Michigan	CNN	20 candidates
Third Democratic primary debate	September 12, 2019	Houston, Texas	ABC News and Univision	10 candidates
Fourth Democratic primary debate	October 15, 2019	Westerville, Ohio	CNN and The New York Times	12 candidates
Fifth Democratic primary debate	November 20, 2019	Georgia	MSNBC and The Washington Post	10 candidates
Sixth Democratic primary debate	December 19, 2019	Los Angeles, California	PBS NewsHour and Politico	7 candidates
Seventh Democratic primary debate	January 14, 2020	Des Moines, Iowa	CNN and The Des Moines Register	6 candidates
Eighth Democratic primary debate	February 7, 2020	Manchester, New Hampshire	ABC, WMUR-TV, and Apple News	7 candidates
Ninth Democratic primary debate	February 19, 2020	Las Vegas, Nevada	NBC News and MSNBC	6 candidates
Tenth Democratic primary debate	February 25, 2020	Charleston, South Carolina	CBS News and Congressional Black Caucus Institute	7 candidates
Eleventh Democratic primary debate	March 15, 2020	Washington, D.C.	CNN, Univision, and CHC Bold	2 candidates

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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)