NJ Senator Cory Booker Speaks Most in Day 1 of Democratic Debate

By Louis Biondolillo

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker made headlines following night one of the Democratic Debate. The presidential hopeful ranked number one when it came to the amount of time he spoke versus the other nine candidates. According to NPR, he spoke for a total of 10 minutes and 58 seconds out of the two hour debate. 

 

Although Booker had the most on-air time, his colleagues were not close behind with former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke controlling the show for 10 minutes and 24 seconds and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in third with 9 minutes and 20 seconds. Both O’Rourke and Warren are polling higher than Booker in early opinion polls.

 

The debate focused on hot button issues like immigration and healthcare but was difficult to follow due to the one minute time constraints that the candidates had to adhere to. One highlight of the night by Lestor Holt was a question directed to all of the candidates in a show of hands method: Would you abolish private healthcare in favor for a Medicare-for-All plan. Only Warren and Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio raised their hands. This sparked the most interesting part of the night which actually felt like a debate- until the candidates were quickly forced to move on to the next, less interesting topic.

 

In addition to some light debate, several candidates showed off their spanish skills during the program. O’Rourke stole the show early by using spanish in an attempt to connect with Latino voters while also managing to dodge a question asking if he would raise taxes on the rich to 70%. Booker and Castro also both spoke the romance language during their time on camera.

 

Currently, Booker is in seventh place out of the 20 democratic candidates that qualified for the debate with former Vice President Joe Biden leading the pack followed by Senator Bernie Sanders. 

 

Night two of the first democratic debate is on NBC tonight from 9 to 11 PM and will feature ten new candidates including frontrunner Biden, Senator Sanders, and Senator Kamala Harris.