The Memo: 2020 Democratic Race Enters Do-Or-Die Phase

(The Hill) Niall Stanage 07/29/19 06:00 AM The race for the Democratic presidential nomination enters a new phase this week with candidates desperate to make an impact in a second round of debates. The debates which take place on Tuesday and Wednesday evening in Detroit offer a last chance for some candidates to break out of the lower tiers in the field. Among the top candidates the verbal punches will fly thick and fast as the big names vie for an advantage at the last big event before the campaign quietens down for much of August. Its going to be like Thunderdome" said one Democratic strategist unaligned with any presidential candidate. Ten come in but who knows how many come out?" Ten candidates will debate each night. The clashes will be televised by CNN. Former Vice President Joe Biden remains the front-runner in the race but is showing signs of weakness. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) are for now the three candidates best placed to supplant him. This weeks debates will inevitably be seen through the lens of the first clashes which took place a month ago in Miami. Biden had a bad night in Magic City. Harris criticized him in forceful terms for his opposition to federally mandated school busing and for his sympathetic remarks about Southern segregationist senators of a previous era. In the aftermath the California senator rose sharply in the polls and Biden drifted down. Biden has to do much better this time around before anxiety among his supporters becomes a full-on panic.