LOS ANGELES — It’s the sixth and final Democratic primary debate of the year.
Seven 2020 Democratic presidential candidates will debate at Los Angeles’s Loyola Marymount University on Thursday, the most intimate and least diverse meeting of White House contenders since they began convening over the summer.
Down from 10 candidates who gathered in Atlanta last month, the PBS Newshour and Politico debate will feature leading hopefuls former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg from center stage. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, billionaire hedge fund manager and Democratic megadonor Tom Steyer, and entrepreneur and nonprofit organization executive Andrew Yang will flank them from the outer podiums.
Yang, 44, is the sole minority candidate who qualified to debate in the delegate- and donor-rich “Super Tuesday” state of California. The state’s junior senator, Kamala Harris, dropped out of the race this month, while New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and former housing secretary Julian Castro failed to meet the polling and fundraising criteria by Dec. 12.
More than six million people tuned in to see November’s debate in Atlanta. Here are seven trends or moments to watch for during Thursday’s three-hour format, which starts at 8 p.m. ET:
Fireworks between Buttigieg and Warren
The smaller debate field means candidates will have more time to sell themselves — and undermine each other. Buttigieg, 37, and Warren, 70, are competing for the same pool of professional-class voters while trying to expand their appeal among black Americans and other minorities. The pair of ascendant contenders will likely escalate their war of words over transparency. They’ve been at loggerheads on the campaign trail in recent weeks, pummeling each other regarding their corporate work histories.
Buttigieg, an openly gay Afghanistan veteran, was a McKinsey & Company management consultant for three years after he graduated from Harvard College and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He once advised a major healthcare insurer in Michigan on how to reduce its overhead costs.
Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor, had a range of private legal clients as she taught across the country, including large corporations that pitted her against their middle-class employees. The Consumer and Financial Protection Bureau champion has also swung at Buttigieg over his hesitancy to release the name of his fundraising bundlers.
Tensions between Biden, Buttigieg, and Warren
National polling for Biden, 77, indicates he’s on steadier ground, solidifying his status as the contest’s front-runner after a shaky start to his third presidential campaign. But he’s not in the clear just yet, particularly with surveys showing he’s still behind in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Biden and Buttigieg, two center-left candidates, have ramped up their attacks on Warren, a more liberal contender who hasn’t been shy about hitting back over their ideological differences. While Sanders, 78, has largely been ignored by his rivals occupying the top-tier, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, 59, is another center-left hopeful who’ll likely take a dig at Warren. The former prosecutor is enjoying a late surge ahead of Iowa’s opening caucuses on Feb. 3.
Sharp elbows between Biden and Buttigieg
Although four decades separate Biden and Buttigieg, the opponents are trying to woo the same moderately center-left voters turned off by Warren and Sanders’s more liberal brand of politics. In a way, they’re also both vying for the right to carry on former President Barack Obama’s legacy, with Biden as his two-term No. 2 and Buttigieg evoking the memory of the party elder as “another young man with the funny name” during iterations of his stump speech. The former Rhodes scholar needs to tread lightly though. Other candidates who have gone after Biden, such as Harris, 55, and Castro, 45, have come up on the losing end.
A wedge between Warren and Sanders?
Although Sanders hasn’t been afraid to point out his liberal ally Warren is still a capitalist, the former teacher has been reluctant to draw distinctions between herself and the socialist. As Warren’s campaign loses steam after a summer of momentum, watch for her to be prodded on what distinguishes her from the former representative for Vermont in the House, whose “Medicare for all” platform she embraced to her detriment. She’s unlikely to take the bait though in case she can scoop up some of his supporters in what’s looking more and more like a tight race for the nomination.
The shadow of Michael Bloomberg
The late entry of Michael Bloomberg, 77, into the primary in November sent ripples through the field. The Biden camp, in particular, is nervous given the former Republican and independent New York City mayor chalked up his decision to enter the fray to Biden’s poor performance. Although the billionaire businessman and philanthropist, who’s already spent in excess of $100 million on his campaign, has notched up an average of 5% support in national polls, his choice to self-fund his bid meant he couldn’t be considered for Thursday’s debate. Any salvos lobbed at Bloomberg may also be directed at Tom Steyer, 62, the other megawealthy candidate hoping to become the party’s standard-bearer. Sanders and Warren have been especially vocal about their distaste for the duo.
Impeachment
The issue of impeachment is sure to be raised after the House introduced two articles of impeachment against President Trump, 73. The first article covers abuse of power and the second obstruction of Congress, each stemming from allegations Trump improperly leveraged U.S. military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden. The House’s timeline sets up a likely January trial in the Senate, impinging on many of the Senate candidates’ plans to make a final push with voters before Iowa. As an aside, the topic of trade may also be broached after the Trump administration and congressional Democrats finally reached an agreement regarding the U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal.
Boasts about solving Loyola Marymount University’s labor dispute
Thursday’s debate was at risk of not happening at Loyola Marymount University after a labor dispute boiled over between the food workers’ union, Unite Here Local 11, and subcontracted on-campus food service provider Sodexo. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, a former Obama administration labor secretary, stepped in to help broker a deal after the seven candidates, as well as Booker and Castro, pledged to boycott the event rather than cross the union’s picket line. The debate was supposed to be at the University of California Los Angeles, but was shifted to Loyola Marymount because of a separate labor disagreement.
The next debates will be hosted by the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, staggered to take place on Jan. 14, Feb. 7, Feb. 19, and Feb. 25, just before each respective nominating contest.
