What 2020 Democrats have to say about California’s biggest issues ahead of the primary
Bernie Sanders said former President Barack Obama was wrong to deport 3 million people.
Andrew Yang said he wants to let 16-year-olds vote.
Julián Castro said he’d end homelessness in America by 2028.
Eight Democratic candidates for president answered free-wheeling questions about their views in a forum sponsored by Univision at the state Democratic Party convention in Long Beach Saturday. About 5,000 Democratic party leaders and local activists attended the weekend’s activities.
Wooing key constituency groups, including Latinos, ahead of the state’s March 3 primary, the candidates offered a wide range of potential solutions to the problems they said are plaguing California, America and the world. While impeachment came up a couple of times, the bulk of the two-hour event was devoted to issues like health care, gun violence and immigration.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden did not attend.
Here’s what the other candidates had to say at the forum:
KAMALA HARRIS
California Sen. Kamala Harris began by talking about the recent mass shooting in Santa Clarita. Expressing frustration with the lack of attention by the Senate to address gun violence, she reiterated her plan to direct Congress to take action in the first 100 days of her presidency. If no legislation is brought to her desk, she vowed to take executive action.
“I’m done,” Harris said. “I have hugged too many mothers of homicide victims. I have met too many of our young leaders who literally cry.”
She also took aim at Biden and Warren over their decision not to participate in the forum. Asked if Democrats are taking the Latino vote for granted, Harris said, “I’m here. You have to judge people by their conduct and their actions.”
Addressing reporters shortly thereafter Harris address concerns over her decision to “move to Iowa” and pull staff out of her home state in order to win there. The California senator insisted she’s not abandoning the state.
“I live in California, I am a very proud daughter of California,” she said. “My entire career has been based on serving the people of California, and that is always going to be primary focus.”
JULIAN CASTRO
Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary, touted efforts in the Obama administration that he said reduced homelessness among veterans by 47 percent from 2010 to 2016.
He said as president he would eliminate homelessness in America by 2028 with a plan, estimated to cost at least $970 billion over 10 years, that would boost rent subsidies and increase the supply of affordable housing.
Castro said he disagreed with President Donald Trump’s call to help Mexico “wage war” on cartels following the massacre of nine U.S. women and children in northern Mexico earlier this month.
“I don’t think the United States should send its military down to Mexico. Mexico is a sovereign nation,” he said. But addressing gun violence in America could help, he said.
“A lot of the weapons that end up being used by the Mexican cartels come from the United States,” he said. “That’s another reason we need to ban assault weapons.”
PETE BUTTIGIEG
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor continued to advance his health care plan to provide “Medicare for all who want it,” criticizing plans supported by Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that would eliminate private health care insurance.
“Being bold and having big ideas shouldn’t be measured by how many people you alienate,” he said.
He told a questioner with an ill mother that unpaid caregivers should get Society Security credit for their efforts.
“That deserves getting credit toward Social Security because it is work, and we should honor the work that you are doing,” he said.
Buttigieg also pushed for stricter limits on access to guns, saying the Second Amendment is not absolute and that the country needs to “decide where to draw the line, and we need to draw it tighter than we’ve been so far.”
“Everybody can have a water balloon. Nobody can have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “This is not some new constitutional idea that we’re asserting.”
He said the fact that polls show Americans support background checks and red-flag laws that cannot pass Congress demonstrates that “our democracy is broken.”
AMY KLOBUCHAR
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she’s frequently asked whether a woman can win a presidential election in America, and cited a Californian as evidence that it’s possible.
“A woman beats Donald Trump every single day, and her name is Nancy Pelosi,” she said. “We thank the sunny, Super Tuesday state of California for her.”
Klobuchar was questioned about her reluctance to cancel existing student debt, as Warren and Sanders have promised. She said she understood the problem, noting her husband had $60,000 in student loans when they met, “but I married him anyway.”
She said her approach would double Pell grants up to $12,000 a year for financially needy students and promote refinancing of student loans.
“If multimillionaires could refinance their yachts, students should be able to refinance their student loans,” she said.
ANDREW YANG
The entrepreneur was adamant in his criticisms of major tech companies. He chastised Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, declaring that “it’s time for Facebook to grow up” and take responsibility for the truthfulness of the political advertising on its platform.
In response to a question about farm workers, he said his plan to provide every American a universal basic income of $1,000 a month would help those who lose their jobs to technology.
“Robot strawberry pickers (and other machines) now in use around the country,” he said, “are going to displace many, many workers.”
He said his financial plan would also address homelessness.
In response to a question about voting access, he said would support voting rights for 16-year-olds.
“If you’re 16 years old, you can pay taxes,” he said.
TOM STEYER
California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has said he’s willing to spend $100 million on his campaign, said it’s his ideas that voters should consider when weighing their decision.
Steyer, who has been pushing for the impeachment of the president since 2017, rejected a moderator’s suggestion that he was “just looking for an excuse” to get rid of the president.
He said his father, who went into the Navy in World War II and ultimately prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg, told him as a young man that “if you see something really evil at the heart of your society, you fight it early.”
As president, he said climate change would be his first priority. “I will declare a state of emergency on day one,” he said, “and I will use the emergency powers of the president.”
CORY BOOKER
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey answered a question about gun violence from Lorena Pimentel of San Jose, whose 13-year-old daughter was killed by a 19-year-old gunman at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in July.
He told her that he’s witnessed people in his own community die of gunshot wounds, repeating a story he’s told previously about an incident in which he tried to stop someone from bleeding to death “with my own hands.”
“I am tired of seeing the number one cause of death for black and brown Americans in this country being murder,” Booker said.
He also vowed to push for a single-payer health care system as president but noted that compromise might be necessary given opposition from some of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate.
“We cannot make perfect the enemy of the good,” he said.
BERNIE SANDERS
Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont, was greeted with the warmest welcome and thunderous applause before he could even take to the stage.
Asked about his recent heart attack, he said he feels much better. “My heart is good. My heart is full. And my heart is grateful for so many people who prayed for me.”
Sanders, 78, said voters are entitled to consider his health and his age.
“Age is an issue, experience is an issue, and standing up for the working class of this country is an issue,” he said. “Having the most comprehensive program to address the global crisis of climate change is an issue... I believe the voters are going to look at the totality of the candidate.
He gave a one-word response to question about whether it was a mistake for Obama to deport 3 milion people as president: “Yes.”
He also responded to recent remarks by Obama who warned the field off candidates not to move too far to the left, saying “the average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”
“When I talk about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, I’m not tearing down the system,” Sanders said. “We’re fighting for justice.”
He also repeatedly said he’d reverse policies enacted under the Trump administration, though he acknowledged he’d have to work through Congress to pass “comprehensive immigration reform” that includes a pathway to citizenship.
“As president, I will undo every damn thing that Trump did by executive order,” he said.
Other candidates at the convention
Earlier in the day, candidates who did not qualify for the forum also addressed activists.
Speaking to the largest crowd of his new candidacy was Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor who initially declined to enter the presidential race. He told the convention that the country needs someone like him to offer a unifying message.
“I’m not running to be president of the Democrats,” Patrick said. “I’m running to be president of the United States. There’s a difference. I’m not talking about a moderate agenda. This is no time for a moderate agenda. I’m talking about being woke while making room for the still waking.”
Patrick said he understands critics who say it’s too late for him to enter the campaign and knows that many voters like the existing field of candidates. Even so, he said he sees an opening.
“If they’re committed, I respect that commitment, but I don’t think the whole field of voters is committed,” Patrick said, noting that the party and 2020 field “have focused on redress” but have not articulated what he considers a “strategy for progress.”
Spiritual leader Marianne Williamson drew her biggest applause line when advocating for reparations for slavery. She told The Bee earlier on Saturday that she was not prepared to bow out.
“I’m not endorsing,” she said. “I’m running for president of the United States. I’m not in a situation now where I’m endorsing anybody.”
Former Maryland Congressman John Delaney, among the most moderate candidates still in the race, was greeted with scattered boos as he took to the stage. He called on California Democrats to adopt more realistic policy goals.
“The Democratic Party needs to get behind bold, big ideas that are pragmatic, and we can also unify the country around them,” he said. “That, California, is why I’m running for president, to put forth those big ideas.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 4:02 PM with the headline "What 2020 Democrats have to say about California’s biggest issues ahead of the primary."