On Oct. 13, 2015 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas the candidates for the Democratic primary participated in a debate that covered topics from across the political board. Broadcasted by CNN, news anchor Anderson Cooper served as the event’s moderator in order to keep the candidates, which included Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee, on-topic and on time. Surprising to some was the absence of Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to enter the Democratic primary and Presidential race, but who would have been provided a microphone had he chosen to announce. In order to attend the debate, candidates were required to achieve an average score of at least one per cent in three national polls.
Though the debate was the first of many in the race for the Democratic candidate spot and is expected to be the least likely to affect voters when election time comes, this didn’t seem to stop media outlets and analysts alike from declaring winners and losers. Candidates Sanders and Clinton were widely touted as the victors of the debate, while Chafee, O’Malley, and Webb were considered to be the evening’s weakest performers. The debate may have ended at 11 p.m. on Oct. 13, but the public’s debate has only just begun. Analysts from CNN, a subsidiary of Time Warner Cable—one of Clinton’s biggest backers—and the BBC, declared Clinton the overarching winner. Other publications, including the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and Fox News, however, declared Sanders the winner.
As the public’s reaction to the debate is considered to be more important than the debate itself, popular media has spent a considerable amount of time analyzing the social media numbers from the night.
With more networks reporting Clinton as the winner, it is interesting to see that Sanders claimed the biggest gains of the night on both Twitter and Facebook, with an increase of 46,000 new followers and 35,000 new likes. Sanders was also the most-searched candidate on Google. However, the most shocking statistic belonged not to a Democrat but a Republican. Donald Trump, who has been dominating the Republican race, tweeted live during the debate and gained more Twitter followers over the course of the night, with over 70,000, than the five candidates combined.
Outside of the public’s opinions and the media’s scrutiny of the debate’s outcome, the event itself had a few memorable moments. One particularly noteworthy moment came as a result of Sanders’ reply to a question regarding Clinton’s email controversy. Sanders proudly declared that Americans were “sick and tired of hearing about [her] damn emails,” receiving a round of cheers and applause. Other points of interest centered around America’s participation in Syria, the Trans-Pacific Partnership—which has been a major topic of discussion in the federal election as well—as well as student debt and tuition.