The question of whether Castro’s attack on Biden was fair appears to be dominating the post-debate chatter, with Cory Booker becoming the latest to weigh in.

Booker offered a more mild reproach than Amy Klobuchar, emphasizing that “tone and tenor” are important when having such conversations.

But interestingly, Booker heavily implied that he has his own concerns about Biden’s ability to “get the ball over the line.” When specially asked if he was concerned about Biden’s age, Booker offered an emphatic “no,” but the whole answer seems to have a heavy “wink and a nudge” element to it.

Here’s an interesting take from the conservative writer Rich Lowry, editor of National Review. He suggests that all three of the Democratic frontrunners represent an electoral risk and if that he was a Democrat he’d be urging the party to look elsewhere. Stacy Abrams, perhaps?

Julián Castro claimed his attack on Joe Biden’s healthcare proposals, in which he accused the former vice president of flip-flopping by sarcastically asking if he was “forgetting” what he had said moments before, was not a criticism of Biden’s age.

Castro’s repeated question of whether Biden was forgetting what he had said elicited gasps from the audience, who assumed (pretty understandably) that Castro was referencing Biden’s repeated gaffes in recent weeks.

The former vice president has, for example, mixed up the sites of recent mass shootings and misidentified the state he was currently campaigning in.

The group Sunrise Movement has issued a damning statement on tonight’s debate and what they say is a failure to adequately address the climate crisis.

In a statement on Twitter, they said “I don’t know how @DNC leaders can look themselves in the mirror tonight [...] they promised us that they would ensure this issue got the attention it deserved. Tonight their check bounced.”

You can read the full statement via their thread here:

Pete Buttigieg’s final debate answer on coming out while running for office reminded many viewers of his history-making candidacy as the first major openly gay presidential candidate.

And Buttigieg’s own husband applauded his “courage” in discussing the experience:

Here is Buttigieg’s answer, which came in response to a question on the meaning of resilience, in case you missed it:

Beto O’Rourke is already moving to capitalize on his biggest line of the night, when he pledged to enact a mandatory buyback of assault weapons.

Donald Trump was uncharacteristically silent during the debate, but that’s probably because he spent the beginning of it addressing a House Republican retreat in Baltimore.

That didn’t stop his campaign spokesperson from mocking all the Democratic presidential candidates and calling the debate an “infomercial” for Trump’s re-election.

The debate may be over but Joe Biden’s latest gaffe is still spinning.

After urging viewers to visit a non-existent website called “Joe 30330” at the end of the last debate, he’s now told children to “make sure you have the record player on at night” in response to a question about how families should spend their evenings.

You can watch it here:

And here’s how people have responded

Amy Klobuchar said she found Julián Castro’s criticism of Joe Biden, when he appeared to criticize the former vice president’s age, “not cool” and compared it to a Trumpian line of attack.

Most of the attention going into tonight’s debate was on whether Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren would directly confront each other as they met for the first time on a debate stage.

But with the exception of a somewhat haphazard effort by Biden at the beginning to criticize “the senator to my left,” the two leading candidates remained focused on defending their policies more than anything else.

The only candidate who directly confronted Biden was Julián Castro, but that effort didn’t seem to land and may have even be misleading, an ABC News reporter said.

Update: the demonstrators who interrupted Joe Biden during the final question of the debate appear to have been immigration protesters, according to a Daily Mail reporter.

Moderator Jorge Ramos pushed Biden on the high number of deportations under the Obama administration, but the former vice president defended Obama, arguing the president had done the best he could at the time.

Beto O’Rourke’s team appears to be taking a victory lap after his debate performance, which has attracted donors and plaudits.

From his rapid response director:

O’Rourke’s answers on gun control, in which he repeatedly mentioned the recent mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, in particular attracted enthusiastic applause from the Houston crowd.

Beto O’Rourke gave a stirring answer on resiliency by honoring his hometown of El Paso as it continues to heal from the mass shooting that killed 22. He referenced those who are still recovering from their injuries.

Amy Klobuchar talked about pushing her state legislature to change the law on hospital stays for mothers with ill newborns after her daughter was born unable to swallow.

Julián Castro recounted quitting his high-paying law firm job so that he could vote against a controversial land deal as a member of San Antonio’s city council.

Meanwhile, the debate has passed by without any question on reproductive rights, which was a central campaign plank of senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The New York senator dropped out of the race late last month.

A former adviser to Gillibrand argued the oversight demonstrated the need for a candidate focused on those issues.

This question of what resiliency means to each candidate has given them the chance to dive more into their personal histories.

Elizabeth Warren spoke about being discriminated against as a teacher because she was pregnant.

Bernie Sanders talked about repeatedly losing races and finally seeing his vision prevail with voters.

Kamala Harris repeated her common line of being the first African-American woman to hold several offices and not listening to people telling her it wasn’t her time.

Pete Buttigieg talked about coming out as gay while running for office and learning to trust voters with that knowledge.

Moderator Linsey Davis, who previously asked Kamala Harris a tough question about her record on criminal justice, has now posed a similarly difficult question to Joe Biden.

Davis specifically asked about Biden’s 1975 comment that he didn’t “feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather” when it came to segregation.

“There is institutional segregation in this country,” Biden acknowledged off the bat, claiming he has worked against such discrimination from the beginning of his career. But the former senator has attracted criticism for his past opposition to government-mandated busing to racially integrate schools.

When Davis tried to cut off Biden, he said he was going to blow past the time limit like all of his opponents, prompting laughter. But he then oddly segued into an answer on Venezuela, which came up about 20 minutes ago.

Kamala Harris used her education answer to trumpet the importance of historically black colleges and universities, one of which she attended (Howard University in Washington).

The site of tonight’s debate, Texas Southern University, is also a historically black university – which may partly explain the healthy applause Harris’ answer attracted.

The audience was similarly receptive to Harris’ citations of statistics showing that black children with black teachers are more likely to go on to college.

The discussion has turned toward education. Andrew Yang was pressed about his stance toward public education, and the tech entrepreneur emphasized he was “pro-good school”.

Pete Buttigieg emphasized teachers need to be better paid so that the positions can attract the best possible candidates.

And Elizabeth Warren dismissed claims that she was “in bed with the teacher unions.” Warren emphasized she was the person onstage who has previously been a teacher and argued that educational funding needs to stay in public schools.

Beto O’Rourke’s campaign is trying to capitalize on his gun-control answers, which attracted some of the loudest applause of the debate so far, by spinning Elizabeth Warren’s catchphrase, “I’ve got a plan.”

Along with the climate crisis there’s another topic the candidates haven’t been questioned on tonight: LGBT rights.

From Trump’s ban of trans people in the military to his push to allow employers to fire employees based on sexuality and gender identity, the White House’s discriminatory policies have caused huge alarm. Yet so far the issue hasn’t come up once in the debate.

The organization Glaad has pointed this out and taken the opportunity to promote its upcoming LGBT forum for candidates.

Continuing with the foreign policy discussion, Julián Castro argued the Trump administration should offer Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans fleeing Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

Trump’s government has backed the opposition government in Venezuela but has refrained from offering TPS, even as it has struggled to oust Maduro.

Bernie Sanders went after Joe Biden for voting in favor of authorizing the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with the Vermont senator boasting he “never believed” George W. Bush or Dick Cheney.

Biden recently acknowledged he “misspoke” in an interview when he claimed he quickly came around to opposing the Iraq War.

Okay, back to policy. Discussing the potential withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Elizabeth Warren said the United States needed to stop using the military to address problems that cannot be solved militarily.

Pete Buttigieg, the only veteran onstage, accused Congress of ignoring its responsibility to determine the necessity of military action. And he criticized Trump for using troops as “props.”

And Cory Booker just used a foreign-policy question involving Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to make a crack about his baldness, so things are getting a little loose on the debate stage.

A PBS NewsHour reporter predicted Kamala Harris’ comparison of Trump to the “small dude” in “The Wizard of Oz” would likely provoke a response from the president.

It reminded some of Republican senator Marco Rubio’s reference to Trump’s “small hands” during a 2016 primary debate.

The candidates have been debating for about an hour and a half now, and there have so far been no questions on the climate crisis. This hasn’t gone unnoticed:

Kamala Harris seems determined to direct all of her criticism toward Trump after confronting Joe Biden in the first debate.

Directly asked how her trade policy would differ from Barack Obama’s, Harris instead immediately pivoted to saying how her policy would be different from Trump, criticizing him for navigating a trade war over Twitter.

She then referenced “The Wizard of Oz.” “You know, when you pull back the curtain, it’s a really small dude?” Harris said.

Host George Stephanopoulos, who is about 5’5”, replied in a deadpan manner, “Okay. I’m not going to take the bait.”

Here’s how long each candidate has spoken so far tonight (we’re now halfway through).

The candidates are being asked about tariffs and whether they would repeal them on day one of their administrations. Andrew Yang said he wouldn’t.

Pete Buttigieg took the opportunity to criticize Trump for fumbling at a crucial moment for “American leadership.” He referenced the president skipping a climate session at the G-7 summit.

Asked again about Trump’s trade policy, Buttigieg said he would use the tariffs as leverage as part of his broader strategy. (So that seems like a “no” on the day one question.)

Here’s where things stand at halftime:

• Candidates are directing more of their criticisms toward Trump and away from Barack Obama. Joe Biden had complained after the second debate that some of his opponents were disparaging the former president’s robust legacy.
• Beto O’Rourke attracted a lot of applause for discussing his gun policies after the mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso.
• Julián Castro has repeatedly attacked Biden, a potentially risky gamble for a lower-polling candidate.

The debate has just returned from its commercial break, so here we go again.

The debate has reached its first commercial break, much to the relief of your blogger. About an hour and a half down, an hour and a half to go.

Julián Castro’s repeated attacks on Joe Biden are definitely attracting the attention of political reporters, but it’s very difficult to say whether the gamble will pay off.

Julián Castro is striking a notably different tone on Barack Obama’s legacy this time around.

During the second debate, Castro, who served as Obama’s housing and urban development secretary, argued the former president had fallen short on immigration.

But tonight, Castro began his answer on immigration by emphasizing that Obama was nothing like Trump on the issue. Castro went on to argue that he was continuing the true legacy of Obama.

Elizabeth Warren is calling for the end of the Senate filibuster to enact gun-control legislation.

If the filibuster was done away with, it would only take 50 Senate votes to pass a bill; legislation can currently be blocked if it attracts less than 60 votes.

Bernie Sanders said he would not end the filibuster but argued there were other legislative means to pass major legislation on issues like gun control and climate change.

O’Rourke did not shy away from saying he would require citizens to turn in their military-style weapons, despite Republicans’ frequent accusations that Democrats are coming to take Americans’ guns.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AK-47,” O’Rourke said in one of the biggest lines of the night so far.

Joe Biden is taking a question on gun control and once again arguing he has the best (and certainly the longest) record on the issue. “I’m the only one up here who’s ever beat the NRA,” the former vice president and senator said.

Biden then similarly applauded Beto O’Rourke for his efforts to help his hometown of El Paso heal from the mass shooting that killed 22. Biden originally referred to the former congressman as “Beto.” He then apologized and O’Rourke interjected, “Beto is good.”

In the midst of a discussion on race and criminal justice, Ari Berman, author of Give Us the Ballot, has made this important point:

Here’s the tense moment Castro went after Biden over his healthcare proposals – and accused him of contradicting himself onstage.

Amy Klobuchar was similarly asked about her record on criminal justice reform, demonstrating how multiple candidates (including Joe Biden) have complicated histories on the issue.

Beto O’Rourke pledged to sign a reparations bill into law as president, something that Marianne Williamson spoke of in the last debate. (But Williamson is not onstage tonight.)

O’Rourke also touched on the white nationalist shooting in his hometown of El Paso, prompting a compliment from Castro about how eloquently the former congressman has spoken about the violence that impacted his community.

Castro went after O’Rourke, his fellow Texan, in the first debate, so the compliment was noteworthy.

Andrew Yang has unveiled his surprise announcement of the night to mixed reviews. During his opening remarks he told the audience his campaign is giving 10 American families $1,000 a month for a year – mirroring his plan to roll out a universal basic income scheme nationwide.

His competition has been welcomed by his supporters but received quite a cynical response from other camps:

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders continue to dive into the weeds of their health care plans. When Sanders specifically referenced the potential case of a cancer patient, Biden interjected, “I know a lot about cancer, and let me tell you something.”

Biden lost his son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

Buttigieg said Medicare-for-all doesn’t “trust the American people” because it takes options away, such as private insurance.

Sanders replied that private insurance can be unstable because of its connection to employment, resulting in people losing health coverage if they lose their jobs.

Biden asserted his plan, which would expand upon Obamacare, would give Americans more options than Medicare-for-all. He noted people would have the option to stay with their plans if they liked it.

Warren replied with this line that could be one of her biggest of the night: “I’ve never actually met anybody who likes their health-insurance company,” she said.

Sanders, taking his first question on health care, reiterated his line from the second debate writing “the damn bill” on Medicare-for-all. It seemed to get a bigger response last time.

The Vermont senator said America could not afford to continue with the “status quo” and argued that it would cost less money over time to go with a single-payer system.

Warren defended her health care proposals, saying they would allow middle-class families to pay less for their insurance.

She emphasized that costs would go up for wealthy Americans and corporations, but they would go down for average families.

Joe Biden touted the message of American exceptionalism, arguing opportunities will be limitless once the country removes its current president.

“There’s enormous, enormous opportunities once we get rid of Donald Trump,” Biden said.

After an awkwardly long pause, Bernie Sanders launched into his opening statement, which was somewhat hobbled by his apparent cold. That could be a problem over the next three hours as the Vermont senator debates his opponents.

Elizabeth Warren referenced her history to the University of Houston just down the road from the debate site and promised to offer the same opportunities to American families.

Julián Castro, a former mayor of San Antonio, pledged in his opening statement that Texas would turn blue next year.

Amy Klobuchar offered this punny warning about Trump’s presidency: “Houston, we have a problem.” Get it? Because we’re in Houston, guys! Brilliant.

But Klobuchar also took aim at the more progressive candidates onstage, offering a “better way” to combat the nation’s problems.

ABC News made a point to emphasize to candidates before the debate that this is a family network, folks.

“We wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that, as the debate will air on the ABC broadcast network, we are governed by Federal Communications Commission indecency rules,” Rick Klein, the network’s political director, wrote in a memo forwarded to the campaigns.

Klein added: “Candidates should therefore avoid cursing or expletives in accordance with federal law.”

One candidate in particular, Beto O’Rourke, has made headlines for repeatedly cursing to express his frustration with inaction on gun control. Maybe if he says it in Spanish, the network won’t bleep him?

Many environmental activists are hoping climate change will be a central theme of tonight’s debate, particularly given that the city hosting the debate has experienced the most devastating effects of extreme weather.

Hurricane Harvey struck Houston two years ago, destroying thousands of homes and claiming at least 68 lives. In recent years, such “500-year” storms have become increasingly common. The Bahamas are the latest tragic example of that trend, as the country wrestles with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian.

Environmental activists complained that the first two debates spent too little time discussing what they consider the defining crisis of our time. And they have lost their greatest champion in the 2020 field, Washington governor Jay Inslee – who based his campaign around combating the climate crisis but dropped out last month.

In the time since, more candidates have released their climate proposals, and CNN hosted a seven-hour (yes, seven-hour) town hall solely dedicated to the issue. But many who fear time is running out on halting the earth’s warming hope the issue will receive more coverage in tonight’s debate.

She occupied a unique space in the first two debates, framing the problem of taking on Donald Trump as a national psychic challenge, asking America to let love rule and making a powerful call for slavery reparations.

But tonight, self-help author Marianne Williamson, not having garnered the requisite polling and donor numbers to make the cut, will be watching the debate from home. Assuming she doesn’t TiVo it.

If the point of the presidential debates is to showcase the range of ideas about how to lead the country and in which direction, it’s tempting to wonder what good it does to have seven members or former members of Congress onstage – with all the repetitive and dull political speech that mix is bound to produce – but to exclude a candidate who made herself a standout, and was a clear crowd-pleaser, back in July with lines like this:

“If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I’m afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days. We need to say it like it is... “

Maybe next time? Williamson hit the debate’s donor threshold, so she could still appear in No.4 if she gets those polling numbers up.

The Democrats have visions of turning the Lone Star state blue.

They point to 2018, when now-presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke came within 3 percentage points of beating incumbent senator Ted Cruz. The last time a Democrat was elected statewide in Texas was 1994.

Down ballot, Democrats flipped two congressional seats in the state and made major gains at the local level, sweeping Harris County and picking up House and Senate seats.

The party is gaining traction in the once-reliably Republican suburbs, where college-educated voters and particularly women recoiled from Trump as well as from an expanding Latino electorate that trends overwhelmingly Democratic.

Five Republican members of Congress from Texas have announced their retirement in recent weeks, a trend Democrats have gleefully dubbed the “Texodus”. They say the Republican departures are indicative of Democrats growing strength in the state. Not all the congressional districts are competitive - but it is a sign that their hope of recapturing the House is increasingly unlikely. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she considers Texas “ground zero for us next election”.

Two Texans are running for president: O’Rourke and Julián Castro. Both have suggested that Texas’s electoral treasure chest would be up for grabs if they were on the ticket.

But demographic shifts won’t happen overnight and the odds remain long that the state will turn the state blue in 2020.

Still, Democrats are poised to make some gains – and if everything’s bigger in Texas, the political fight here will be one to watch.

We may have an answer to what big, unprecedented surprise Andrew Yang will reveal at tonight’s debate, and it is ... rather underwhelming.

But the Democratic presidential candidates who missed the debate stage this time around – including Steve Bullock, Tom Steyer and Tim Ryan– are showing no signs of calling it quits.

Bullock, the Montana governor, offered this oh-so-subtle Twitter message earlier today:

And Ryan and Steyer are holding events in the early voting states of New Hampshire and Iowa.

Ryan has said he may continue on with his bid even if he doesn’t make the cut for the fourth debate, so he’s definitely in this for the long haul. “If I’m doing well in September, October in polling, we’ll probably just keep going,” Ryan told Bloomberg News last week.

The Democratic presidential candidates participating in tonight’s debate have been preparing for the big event with their families. Amy Klobuchar and Julián Castro both posted tweets with their children in the hours before the debate:

And Kamala Harris’ husband shared a photo of the California senator before she hits the stage:

It’s well known that healthcare was the biggest issue among voters in the 2018 midterms. But it’s still astonishing to see just how much this is the case when measured in Google search interest.

In the below maps, which show the most searched for issues in three early-voting states in the Democratic primary, you can see how much healthcare (colored grey) dominates almost every district in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Iowa

New Hampshire

South Carolina

Senator, senator, mayor, senator, ex-veep, senator, senator, former congressman, former secretary, Andrew Yang.

One of these things is not like the other, and he is Yang, an entrepreneur and philanthropist whose personal charisma and unique platform – curb automation, add a universal basic income – have produced a surprisingly potent presidential bid.

Yang not only racked up the poll numbers and donor totals to win a place in the third debate – he is noticeably, and remarkably, closer to the center of the stage than some pretty big names like Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker. Positions onstage are awarded by polling average, with the best performers in the middle.

Here’s the order: senator Amy Klobuchar, Booker, mayor Pete Buttigieg, senator Bernie Sanders, former vice president Joe Biden, senator Elizabeth Warren, senator Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, O’Rourke and former HUD secretary Julián Castro.

Will Yang take advantage of tonight’s debate to move even closer to the middle next time? Apparently he has a plan in store for tonight:

And he’s not offering any spoilers before the big event: