Klobuchar and Buttigieg had very different debate nights, survey shows

(Image credit: Chris Carlson/Getty Images)

published 20 December 2019

Who won Thursday's Democratic debate? It depends how you measure.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) got the most speaking time, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) coming close behind — all at around 20 minutes. Former Vice President Joe Biden talked for just 15 minutes, oddly low given his consistent lead in the polls, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer each got about 11 minutes with the mic.

Meanwhile, a new FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos survey finds two significant wins for Klobuchar, who "gained a little over 4 points in the share of respondents who said they were considering voting for her," more than double anyone else's gains. She also posted the best pre- and post-debate comparative gains in respondents' average rating of candidates' chances to beat President Trump. Still, relative improvements like Klobuchar's are not the same as an overall lead, and in that Biden, Sanders, and Warren dominated the night.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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