How Candidates Ignored the Rules to be Heard in the Democratic Debates

On Wednesday night, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was the first to break the decorum that had characterized the first 20 minutes of the debate when he cut off former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke mid-sentence—an invitation for the other candidates to begin talking over one another.

The front-runners, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren largely refrained from speaking over their peers on both nights, while the lesser-known candidates jostled for precious speaking time.

On the first night of the debate, nearly all of the interruptions were directed by men toward other men, while the women on stage generally waited for the moderators to address them.

Former HUD secretary Julián Castro, the only Latino candidate, had to fight for speaking time. But it appears to have been worth it—his popularity rating jumped by nearly 20 percent after the debate, by far the greatest percentage increase for a candidate on night one. Some argued that his race played a factor in the disproportionately small amount of media attention he received prior to the debates compared to white candidates with far less national political experience.

Both Castro and O’Rourke racked up interruptions as they sparred over immigration, with Castro challenging the former representative for not supporting decriminalizing border crossings. At one point, O’Rourke and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker had a brief tug-of-war over their Spanish-speaking credentials, which is neither of their native languages. The tactic made sense given the location of the debates in Miami and their airtime on Telemundo, but may have also put them in danger of so-called “Hispandering”.

Thursday night proved more chaotic, with candidates shouting over each other within the first ten minutes of the debate. Though multiple frontrunners were on stage, those who had been lagging in the polls seemed more comfortable interrupting.

Defying typical gender dynamics that have played out in previous debates, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and author Marianne Williamson held the top two spots for interruptions on night two. At one point, after Sanders addressed a question on Roe v. Wade by pointing to abortion coverage in his Medicare for All plan, Gillibrand cut in. “I’d like to talk directly to America’s women,” she said, launching into a substantive response advocating for women’s reproductive freedom. She received loud cheers from the audience.

In one of the centerpiece moments of the debate, California Senator Kamala Harris directly challenged Biden on his record on race, criticizing his nostalgic comments about working with segregationists in the Senate and his past stance on school bussing. Biden ultimately surrendered the fiery exchange. “My time is up,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang had the least speaking time out of all the candidates across both nights—far less than others with lower polling averages. After being relegated to the sidelines for much of the debate, he was finally asked a question about China, which, as one of the only questions posed to the only Asian American Democrat to ever run for president, raised an outcry on social media.

With so many contenders vying for the Democratic nomination this year and a polling threshold of only 1% to make it into the initial debates, the number of interruptions showed how much was at stake for some of the lesser-known candidates. California Representative Eric Swalwell and Ohio Representative Tim Ryan—both of whom had low polling averages going into the debates—cut off other speakers frequently. Meanwhile, former Maryland Representative John Delaney tried to edge in eight times while moderators were talking. The next few weeks’ polls will reveal who was successful in breaking through, and whether they’ll meet the tougher requirements already set for future debates.