How Did Democratic Candidates Do? Our Latino Panel Weighs In

Bernie Set Himself Apart

Hillary Clinton was prepped and poised as ever, handling questions and critiques like the seasoned stateswoman that she is. Though she was steady and confident, there was nothing about her performance during this first Democratic debate that was either surprising, or that accentuated her standing as the alleged leading candidate in the Democratic race.

Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, was unquestionably passionate and energetic, and looked most like the leader of a political movement than anyone else on stage. His mission to address social inequality was fully comprehensive, from his scathing critique of Wall Street, to his defense of the Black Lives Matter movement. Where attention to Latinos is often relegated to the issue of immigration reform and the status DREAMers, Sanders brought direct attention to the high unemployment rates among young Latinos (and African Americans), and set himself apart as a candidate who is thinking about the Latino community as more than a one-issue voting block.

Martin O'Malley—virtually unknown on the national stage before this evening—is a star on the rise. For his part, O'Malley iterated on more than one occasion our country's need to invest in those among us who are "young, poor, and black" and he was unflinching his remark that if poor whites were dying at the same rate as poor blacks, there would be more people marching in the streets.

This was not Jim Webb's evening. In other speaking formats, he is eloquent about his vision for a consistent foreign policy and the need to reform our criminal justice system, but the debate format is not the place where he best connects the dots of his platform. He was also disappointedly awkward when describing his bona fides on past efforts to improve the status of African Americans. 

Note: the above excerpt is quoted from a longer article that can be found at the NBC News website.