Round three of the Democratic presidential debates, held at Texas Souther University in Houston on September 12, is in the books. The evening featured the highly anticipated meeting of former VP Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for the first time on the debate stage for the 2020 election.
The debate, which featured just 10 of the 20 hopefuls this time, also included Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey: Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; former HUD secretary Julian Castro; California’s Sen. Kamala Harris; Minnesota’s Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke; Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
The evening kicked off with a heated debate about health care, with Castro at one point even calling out Biden on seemingly changing his stance on whether or not people would be required to opt into a plan. Other (expected) topics included racism (O’Rourke noted that there’s a “white supremacist” in the White House), gun control, immigration, the climate crisis (which led to a mention of veganism), education, and more.
Warren, Sanders, and Biden—despite his word salads and forgetful moments—grabbed the spotlight as expected. But several of the others had bright moments as well. Overall, which of the hopefuls did the best this time around?