The 2020 Presidential race has been dominating political conversations as of late, and the field of Democratic hopefuls has begun to resemble the field of Republican hopefuls from 2016, if only in the number of candidates.
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel both dropped out of the race over the last several weeks after neither candidate appeared to gain much traction. Hickenlooper was the only one of the two to make it to the debate stage.
Polls from many sources including FOX News, The Hill, Politico, The Economist and Quinnipiac have Former Vice President Joe Biden as the clear frontrunner in the Democratic race, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders polling not far behind.
The Democratic candidates clashed sharply on the debate stage, particularly over the issue of healthcare. Sanders, who CNN described as one of the “most progressive candidates in the 2020 Democratic field,” said during the first debate that he would be willing to entirely eliminate private health insurance in favor of single-payer plans that would be run by the United States government. Sen. Kamala Harris also expressed her willingness to do the same.
Race was another hot button issue at the first Democratic debate. South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said that he “couldn’t get it done,” referring to racial tensions that have arisen in South Bend following the shooting of a black man by a white police officer. Harris also spoke on the issue of race and attacked Biden for his history of working with segregationists during his time in the senate. Biden had said prior to the debate that he had no regrets about working with segregationist senators in the past. Biden also said that he has never been a racist and touted his legacy of being a champion for civil rights.
Perhaps no issue fired up the Democratic hopefuls more than U.S. President Donald Trump. Sanders said that Trump was a “racist” and a “pathological liar.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said that Trump has “torn apart the moral fabric of who we are.” During the second debate, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke said that Trump’s presidency had been marked by “cruelty” and said that Trump is a “lawless president.”
A moment from the second Democratic debate, which took place in Detroit, spread quickly across social media. A clip where Rep. Tulsi Gabbard took Harris to task over her record as a prosecutor was shared widely on Twitter. Pointing out the claim that Harris made about being a “prosecutor president,” Gabbard said that Harris had “put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” which drew applause and cheers from the crowd. Gabbard also said that Harris had “blocked evidence which would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so,” and said that she had kept inmates in prison past when they were supposed to be released in order to have cheap labor in California. Gabbard concluded her remarks by calling for Harris to apologize to the people who “suffered” from her actions as prosecutor. Following the debate, Gabbard’s name was searched on Google more times than any other candidate.
It has been relatively more quiet on the Republican side. Trump has continued holding well-attended rallies throughout the country and has been running for reelection for quite some time. His only challenger so far is Bill Weld, a Libertarian-leaning former governor of Massachusetts. Weld announced his run for president on April 15 and has been holding campaign events, including a recent stop at the Iowa State Fair. Many prominent figures have declined to run (including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley) and a handful of potential challengers have expressed interest in running for the Republican nomination, but as of press time, only two Republican candidates have launched campaigns.
