After the Iowa caucuses, the State of the Union and President Donald Trump’s acquittal by the Senate on two articles of impeachment, the week is ending with a bang. Tonight, seven Democratic presidential candidates are squaring off in a debate in New Hampshire, just a few days before voters in the state head to the polls for the first primary of the election cycle.
Monday’s highly anticipated Iowa caucuses were a mess. An app meant for reporting results malfunctioned due to a “coding issue,” and precinct chairs had to wait on the phone for hours to report their results. After days of waiting as results trickled in, it’s still not completely clear who won. Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders appear neck-in-neck, with Buttigieg slightly edging out Sanders in state delegate equivalents while Sanders is slightly ahead in the popular vote. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren appears to have come in third. However, as of Thursday night, the Associated Press says it is “unable to declare a winner.”
Regardless, the Democratic presidential candidates have moved on to New Hampshire, which will vote in the election cycle’s first primary on Feb. 11. Given the chaos over who won in Iowa, doing well in New Hampshire has only become more crucial for campaigns. Tonight’s Democratic debate could be a crucial last chance for the candidates to make their case to those voters.
The New Hampshire debate will take place tonight in Manchester, N.H., at St. Anselm College. ABC News, WMUR-TV and Apple News will co-host the debate, which will air live on Feb. 7 from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. EST on ABC and stream on on the ABC app, ABC.com and connected devices such as Roku, AppleTV and Amazon Fire TV.
ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, ABC News managing editor David Muir and ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis, WMUR-TV political director Adam Sexton and WMUR-TV news anchor Monica Hernandez will all moderate. Stephanopoulos and Muir previously moderated the September debate.
Seven candidates qualified for New Hampshire Democratic debate: former Vice President Joe Biden, Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sanders, billionaire executive Tom Steyer, Warren and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
Candidates had until 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 6 to get at least 5% in four DNC-approved polls or 7% in at least two early state polls (New Hampshire, South Carolina and/or Nevada). They also needed to receive at least 225,000 unique donors with at least 1,000 unique donations in 20 states, U.S. territories or Washington D.C. Starting with the New Hampshire debate, there’s also a third way to qualify: candidates can make the stage with at least one pledged delegate for the Democratic National Convention based on the results of caucuses or primaries.
The DNC plans to hold a debate in each early voting state, meaning tonight’s debate will be the first of three debates in February alone. The next two will be on Feb. 19 in Las Vegas and Feb. 25 in Charleston.
Dante Scala, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, tells TIME that tonight’s debate could possibly impact Tuesday’s vote. “You shouldn’t underestimate the volatility of New Hampshire primary voters, even in the last weekend,” he says. “[There’s] a lot of people who will, believe it or not, just be tuning in for the week between Iowa and New Hampshire… They might be moved quite a bit by what’s in the news that week.”
Of course, that’ll depend on what happens tonight. Follow along for live updates from the February Democratic Debate.
Buttigieg and Sanders spar over progressive policies
Without referring explicitly to the Vermont senator at first, Buttigieg went after Sanders’ message, arguing his strategy of offering transformative policies around health care and college tuition will polarize people rather than unite them around the Democratic platform.
“The biggest risk we could take at a time like this,” Buttigieg argued, is with “our nominee dividing people with politics that says if you don’t vote all the way to the edge, it doesn’t count.”
Asked if he was talking about Sanders, Buttigieg said, “Yes.”
Sanders defended his campaign approach, saying that his message would appeal to the working class. “The way you bring people together is by presenting an agenda that works for the working people of this country, not for the billionaire class.”
Candidates debate voter turnout
Early in the debate, Sanders touted his success among young voters during the Iowa caucuses and stressed the need to increase voter turnout among youth in order to beat President Trump in the general election, a nod to the high voter turnout of successful Democratic elections such as the 2008 presidential election and 2018 midterms.
But when Stephanopoulos asked by show of hands if anyone worried if a democratic socialist being on the ticket could hurt voter turnout, Klobuchar raised her hand. “We are not going to be able to out divide the divider-in-chief,” she said. “We need someone to head up this ticket that actually brings people with her instead of shutting them out… Donald Trump’s worst nightmare is a candidate that will bring people in from the middle.”
Steyer seconded Klobuchar’s call for a more moderate candidate. “After this week, there’s a real threat that Donald Trump can get re-elected,” he said. “The only way that we’re going to beat him actually is the way that Bernie Sanders said, which is to get turn out across spectrum of Democratic voters.”
‘I took a hit in Iowa’
Biden began the debate by acknowledging that his fourth place results in the Iowa caucuses posed a setback. “I took a hit in Iowa and I’ll probably take a hit here,” he said, referring to the upcoming New Hampshire primary. “I’ve always viewed the first four encounters — the two primaries and two caucuses — as the starting point.”
Asked about why he feels that if Sanders or Buttigieg will present a risk if one of them wins the Democratic nomination, Biden cited Sanders’ identification as a self-described democratic socialist. He also said Buttigieg has not shown he has the experience to be successful as President.