As the Democratic Presidential candidacy continues to heat up, the topics of discussion are being brought onto our very own campus for students to get a first-hand impression. All six front-runners; Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Biden, Bloomberg, and Klobuchar, will have campaign surrogates to represent their candidate in a presidential forum. While Bernie is thought to be wining the race, all of the candidates still have a shot at this point. This forum will be a great way for students to learn more details about each candidate and get a better feel for what makes each of these candidates different from one another.

7:35 – Forum about to start, looks like Bernie’s surrogate will not make it tonight.

7:41 – Based on the crowd chatter, many people are here just to become educated on the candidates. This seems to be the main audience for this event.

7:45 – Surrogates introducing themselves now. Looks like the Bloomberg surrogate could not make it either.

7:51 – Representative from Senator Mark Warner’s campaign has been given the mic to make a case for him in the ballot for being reelected. He is emphasizing the work he has done in the public school system.

7:53 – First question is finally asked. How will your candidate work for a more inclusive America? I am expecting to see lots of attacks on the 1% especially without Bloomberg representative.

7:58 – Klobuchar’s surrogate seems to be taking an approach of distinguishing her as better than all other candidates rather than just answer the questions on her behalf. Biden’s is emphasizing the fact that he is the answer to beating Trump.

8:03 – Though it is early, Warren’s surrogate is clearly dominating this forum. She is doing the best job at applying her candidate’s plans to the community she is talking to and has the best public speaking skills of the group.

8:05 – I was correct. Everyone going after the top 1%.

8:08 – Current question posed is what the candidate will do for the economy as a whole along with education specifically. Seems like all candidates represented here are fighting for some form of paid higher education. I am finding out Biden is not in this group as I write this. They all agree that a great economy starts from a strong educational foundation.

8:12 – My favorite question so far just dropped. What is your candidate’s plan to fight climate change? I am sure this will have a lot of overlap between candidates as this is a topic of high interest across the party.

8:18 – Buttigieg, and Warren all are looking for a quicker timeline while Klobuchar and Biden aiming for 2050. Warren stands out from the others though by promising to attack environmental racism in places like Flit Michigan.

8:26 – Klobuchar’s surrogate is pushing the point home that she is a compromiser at heart and will work to implement new policy slowly. He is portraying her as the one most willing to reach across the house to work with the republicans to get things done.

8:29 – The surrogates are all being very friendly to each other which is nice to see. At the debates, everyone was at each other’s throats. However, this is not the case here which is nice to see. A friendly discussion makes taking in information a ton easier.

8:34 – Buttigieg’s surrogate is not giving him a great look. On the topic of DACA, she does not know his policy and is seeming to be a little unprepared.

8:38 – Bloodbath on the DACA question. Only Warren’s surrogate was informed on her candidate’s exact stance on it. Klobuchar’s surrogate especially slipped up calling migration the same on emigration.

8:45 – All candidates agree that decreasing our foreign hostility is necessary to better world peace. They all want to back track on Trump’s recent actions especially in the Middle East to help ease tensions and appear more friendly to other countries.

This event was very successful in educating the students here on the different policies. I personally feel like I have a much better idea about what distinguishes each candidate from each other. Warren was by far the winner here tonight. Her surrogate dominated on every question. She had the most thoughtful answers and did the best job speaking compared to everyone else. If this was your only exposure to these candidates, a democratic voter would most likely take Warren. The highlight of the night for me was Klobuchar accidentally calling migration the same as emigration in regards to the DACA issue. This made her surrogate look like he was not very well educated on this issue. Overall though, the surrogates did a good job of portraying what you get with every candidate. I would highly recommend this event to any unsure voter during next presidential election.