Last week, we saw the first round of Democratic primary debates for the presidential election of 2020. Split between two days because of the number of participants, the candidates were on the stage for the first time together to make their individual cases. Each of the 20 hopefuls needed to make a positive impact during the debates that would differentiate them from the rest of the crowded field. This is particularly challenging for two reasons.

The first is that theoretically, each candidate only had 12 minutes to speak for each debate. The second is that 19 of the candidates had to demonstrate how they could be a better candidate against President Donald Trump than the frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, who remains in the lead despite a relatively poor performance at the debates. Yet there were plenty of highlights from the first debates that have stuck with us and give us hope that we’re witnessing the beginning of the journey for the first female president of the United States. Here are three takeaways we had from the debates.

Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris Did Especially Well

During their respective debate nights, Senator Warren and Senator Harris showcased how they were strong candidates for the highest office to the American public. They have risen in polls, which is especially notable since both Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders have fallen. 

On the first night, Warren started strong and set the tone for half of the debate. She was firm on her platform of being focused on policy, breaking up big companies, and overhauling the health insurance industry. She also kept consistent with her brand of “having a plan” for everything when asked if she had a plan to address Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And yes, she does have a plan to deal with the infamous senator. Although she didn’t really speak much on other issues like immigration, Warren showed off her policy-savvy with earnest.

Harris had a strong showing on the second night and seemed to evoke being the only adult on stage amongst a crowd of squabbling children. In fact, when a few candidates started talking over each other, she silenced them with a legendary line: “America does not want a food fight, they want to know how we’ll put food on their table.” And throughout the night, Harris exhibited her stature as a coolheaded and bold leader. The highlight of the second night of the debates was her challenge towards Biden about his past collaboration with segregationist senators and his opposition towards busing. It was a powerful and personal takedown that left Biden practically speechless and vaulted Harris up in the polls.

Representation and Diversity Started To Feel Normalized

To reiterate from our previous article highlighting the female presidential candidates, this is the first time more than one woman has been on a presidential debate stage in this country’s history. Although the candidate pool is overwhelming male, it was empowering and refreshing to see women be part of the conversation without any hesitation or protest. There were no questions to the women about how they can avoid getting “Hillaryed” against President Trump or how being a woman would affect their abilities to be president. They spoke on the issues they cared about, sparred against other candidates, and struggled for the spotlight. In other words, they were treated like their male counterparts and it was exciting to see their participation as a normal standard.

Women’s Issues Were Discussed, But Still A Little Looked Over

During both nights of the debates, abortion and reproductive rights were brought up to the Democratic candidates. Across the entire field, all candidates support reproductive freedom and justice, but only a handful of candidates have proposals about how they will uphold them as president. In particular, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand staked her claim to be a president that will focus on gender equity and supporting the rights of women while Senator Amy Klobuchar made sure to credit her fellow female candidates for their work towards reproductive rights. In addition, Julián Castro pointed out the need for reproductive justice for low-income citizens and in the transgender community. It was great that these important issues received screentime, but noticeably, sexual assault and support for the victims of alleged sexual abuse by our sitting president was never brought up. In future debates, we expect this critical issue to be brought up as it affects the lives of people everyday.