A8 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019
Elizabeth Warren
The senator from Massachusetts
with the “I have a plan for that”
catchphrase is faring well in early state
and national polls, leaning on a variety
of ambitious plans to eradicate student
debt, institute Medicare-for-all and re-
duce the influence of money in politics.
Before Tuesday, Warren had not shared
a debate stage with any of the candi-
dates polling in the top four. She spent
much of Tuesday night fending off
critiques from moderate candidates.
She chastised John Delaney for “using
Republican talking points” when he
suggested that she and others were
trying to take away health care on
Medicare-for-all. And she answered
those who suggested that she is advo-
cating impractical, overly ambitious
solutions.
“You know, I don’t understand why
anybody goes to all the trouble of
running for president of the United
States just to talk about what we really
can’t do and shouldn’t fight for,” Warren
said.Beto O’Rourke
The former Texas congressman has
struggled to climb out of the crowd, and
he did not help his chances when he
struggled to handle attacks on his immi-
gration policy in the first debate.
Though he has already secured a spot on
the September debate stage, O’Rourke’s
campaign clearly needs a major jolt. On
Tuesday, O’Rourke stuck to his highfly-
ing rhetoric, particularly on climate
change — an issue he tried to address
with a sweeping plan released early in
his campaign.
“We don’t have more than 10 years to
get this right,” O’Rourke said.
“Those community college students
that I met in Tucumcari, New Mexico,
understand wind and solar jobs are the
fastest-growing jobs in the country. And
those farmers in Iowa say, ‘Pay me for
the environmental services of planting
cover crops and keeping more land in
conservation easements.’ That’s how we
meet the challenge: We do it with
everyone in this country. We bring
everyone into the solution.”John Hickenlooper
The former governor of Colorado and
former mayor of Denver has so far cast
himself as a pragmatic moderate and
urged his party to avoid “socialist”
policies.
Since the first debate, he has fallen
behind on fundraising and risks not
qualifying for the next round.
Traditionally a noncombatant debat-
er, Hickenlooper on Tuesday warned
that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s policies
would be a “disaster at the ballot box.”
He continued: “You might as well FedEx
the election to Donald Trump.”
On the debate over Medicare-for-all,
Hickenlooper said of Sanders and Sen.
Elizabeth Warren: “Now, I share their
progressive values, but I’m a little more
pragmatic.... It comes down to that
question of Americans being used to
being able to make choices, to have the
right to make a decision.”
Asked about President Trump’s tariffs
on China, Hickenlooper said “Trade
wars are for losers.”John Delaney
The former congressman from Mary-
land has struggled to gain traction in
recent weeks and has even been forced
to deny reports that his staff advised
him to drop out of the race. A critic of
Medicare-for-all, Delaney on Tuesday
night launched an attack on his more
liberal rivals. We cannot “go down the
road that Senator Sanders and Senator
Warren want to take us, which is with
bad policies like Medicare-for-all, free
everything and impossible promises
that will turn off independent voters,”
he said.Steve Bullock
The governor of Montana was keen to
make his mark after failing to qualify
for the first round of Democratic de-
bates last month. Having won in a red
state as a moderate Democrat, his cam-
paign has so far focused on his record of
winning over Republican-leaning vot-
ers. In his first appearance on the
debate stage, he criticized Sens. Bernie
Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for pro-
posing the decriminalization of illegal
immigration.
“We’ve got 100,000 people showing
up at the border right now. If we
decriminalize entry, if we give free
health care to everyone, we’ll have
multiples of that,” he said. “You are
playing into Donald Trump’s hands.”
— Chelsea Janes and Laura HughesBernie Sanders
The senator from Vermont, known for
his Medicare-for-all bill and Democratic
socialism, has slipped in some recent
polls but maintained his devoted base.
Recently, he and his campaign have been
on the attack against Sen. Kamala D.
Harris, a longtime Medicare-for-all sup-
porter who recently released her own
twist on the plan. But Tuesday, without
Harris onstage, Sanders defended his bill
against attacks from more-moderate can-
didates.
“There are millions of people who have
insurance, [but] they can’t go to the
doctor, and when they come out of the
hospital, they go bankrupt. All right?”
Sanders said. “What I am talking about,
and others up here are talking about, is
no deductibles and no co-pay.”
When Rep. Tim Ryan suggested that
Sanders wouldn’t know what Medicare-
for-all would really look like, Sanders
responded with force.
“I do know it,” he said to applause, “I
wrote the damn bill.”
Pete Buttigieg
The mayor of South Bend, Ind., hauled
in $24 million in the second fundraising
quarter, more than any of his fellow
Democrats. But after a swift rise to
prominence, Buttigieg has fallen in many
recent polls and continues to struggle to
energize minority voters as well as others
in the field.
On Tuesday, he insisted it was “time to
stop worrying about what the Republi-
cans will say” when it comes to debating
new policy ideas.
“If it’s true that if we embrace a far-left
agenda, they’re going to say we’re a
bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a
conservative agenda, you know what
they’re going to do? They’re going to say
we’re a bunch of crazy socialists,” he said.
“So let’s just stand up for the right policy,
go out there and defend it.”
Amy Klobuchar
The senator from Minnesota leans on
her Midwestern values and ability to
both win over voters in Trump districts
and collaborate with Republicans in Con-
gress. She has positioned herself as a
moderate by questioning the viability
and practicality of Medicare-for-all, free
college and other policies advocated by
more liberal candidates. On Tuesday,
when she shared a stage with the liberal
stalwarts Sens. Bernie Sanders and Eliza-
beth Warren, Klobuchar cast herself as
the candidate willing to stand up to the
National Rifle Association.
“What is broken is a political system
that allows the NRA and other large, big
money to come in and make things not
happen when the majority of people are
for [it],” she said. “As president, I will take
them on.”
Tim Ryan
The congressman from Ohio, pitching
himself as the candidate best able to lead
struggling industrial communities back
from the brink, is an advocate of invest-
ment in green jobs and widespread tech-
nological training. Ryan has yet to distin-
guish himself from other moderate can-
didates with a similar pitch, and is still
short of the donor and polling thresholds
he must hit to be onstage again in
September. On Tuesday, he argued
against the policies of more left-leaning
candidates.
“Now in this discussion already to-
night we’ve talked about taking private
health insurance away from union mem-
bers in the industrial Midwest, we’ve
talked about decriminalizing the border
and we’ve talked about giving free health
care to undocumented workers when so
many Americans are struggling to pay for
their health care,” Ryan said.
“I quite frankly don’t think that that is
an agenda that we can move forward on
and win.”
Marianne Williamson
The author and spiritual adviser cam-
paigns on ways to heal fissures in Ameri-
can society — most notably as a vocal
supporter of reparations for slavery. She
was panned for out-of-the-box answers
in her first debate performance and
probably needed a more impressive
showing in her second as she tries to
meet the polling and donor thresholds
required to qualify for the third one. On
Tuesday, she argued for a new approach
to politics.
“This is not just about a plan. It’s about
a philosophy of governing. And I’ve heard
some people here tonight [and] I almost
wonder why you’re Democrats,” William-
son said. “You seem to think there’s
something wrong about using... the
instruments of government to help peo-
ple. That is what government should do.”
campaign 2020
PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERSPAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESSLUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERSPAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESLEFT, FROM TOP: Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Tim Ryan and Marianne Williamson
RIGHT, FROM TOP: Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney and Steve BullockThe candidates’ moments
Democratic hopefuls address gun control, Medicare-for-all and the party’s flirtations with socialism