The second night of the second Democratic Presidential debate in Detroit, Michigan, saw former Vice President Joe Biden survive an onslaught from Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bill de Blasio.
At the same time, Harris remained a major competitor, although attacked by Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard on her handling of criminal justice as California Attorney General.
Cory Booker gained a great deal from this debate as well, and Julian Castro and Jay Inslee both improved their status.
Overall, this debate was far better than Tuesday night’s debate, and it is certain that the 20 debaters will decline by up to half the total for the Houston debate on ABC on September 12 and 13.
Some of these 20 contenders, even if they did well, will be unable to gain 130,000 unique contributors and 2 percent in at least 4 polls, the requirements for the third set of debates.
Right now, the following are definite:
Joe Biden
Kamala Harris
Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren
Pete Buttigieg
The following have a good opportunity to move forward as well:
Cory Booker
Julian Castro
Amy Klobuchar
Jay Inslee
Beto O’Rourke
Steve Bullock
So a total of 11 candidates are likely in September in Houston, and since there will likely be only 11, they may all be on one evening.