Every Saturday morning, we’re publishing “This Week in the 2020 Race”: a quick way to catch up on the presidential campaign and the field of 24 candidates for the Democratic nomination.

Debate Night 1: An ideological rift

The first night of this week’s Democratic debates in Detroit pitted the two leading liberals against lesser-known moderates, as CNN moderators pushed for ideological confrontations.

Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts were largely successful in driving the debate and shaking off accusations that they had made fanciful promises that could deliver President Trump a second term. Rather than attacking each other, Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren more or less teamed up to defend their shared agenda on health care and other policy priorities.

No moment summed up the intraparty rift better than an exchange between Ms. Warren and former Representative John Delaney of Maryland, who is polling at less than 1 percent nationally but was perhaps the loudest moderate voice onstage.

Mr. Delaney took an implicit shot at Ms. Warren, assailing “fairy tale economics.” Moments later, Ms. Warren fired back.

“I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for the president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for,” she said.

You can read our main story about the first night’s debate here. We put together some highlights here. And we rounded up expert analysis on who won here.

We wrote about Marianne Williamson’s performance here and here. We also interviewed her about her past comments on mental illness and antidepressants, which have alarmed many mental health professionals.

Debate Night 2: Biden attacked from all sides (again)

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. came under attack once again on Wednesday, and this time he struck back more forcefully at rivals like Senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Although Mr. Biden was able to deliver pointed critiques of Ms. Harris and other challengers, he was also repeatedly forced to defend his record while fielding questions on the policies of the Obama administration. And once again, a divide emerged between populist liberal candidates and those with more centrist values — namely, Mr. Biden.

But Ms. Harris also found herself on defense for the first time as her rivals criticized her record as a prosecutor in San Francisco and as California’s attorney general, and her middle-ground position on health care.

Far from resolving anything, the debate seemed to showcase just how protracted the Democratic race is likely to be.

You can read our main story about the second night’s debate here. We put together some highlights here. And we rounded up expert analysis on who won here.

Who will make the next debate?

If you thought you would get a break from debate chatter after this week, we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news: It’s time to talk about September.

The third set of Democratic debates, scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13, is poised to cut the field in half. Twenty candidates participated in this week’s debates. Just eight have met the much more stringent criteria for the next ones, and only two to four others are within striking distance at all.

The candidates have until Aug. 28 to get 130,000 donors and at least 2 percent support in four polls. Here is who has qualified so far:

Mr. Biden

Mr. Booker

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.

Ms. Harris

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota

Former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas

Mr. Sanders

Ms. Warren

The former housing secretary Julián Castro and the entrepreneur Andrew Yang will probably be there, too: They have met the donor threshold and gotten three qualifying polls apiece. An 11th candidate, Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, just met the donor threshold, but she has only one qualifying poll.

After that, the odds get much longer. Only two other candidates — former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and the impeachment activist Tom Steyer — have even one qualifying poll, and Mr. Hickenlooper’s fund-raising numbers are so low that his chances of reaching 130,000 donors are tiny.

Read our full rundown of the September qualifications here.

And here is a look at when the primary field may start to shrink.

Sanders is crushing everyone else in donors

Mr. Sanders has far more individual donors than any other candidate, according to a New York Times analysis this week: an estimated 746,000 this election cycle, compared with 421,000 for Ms. Warren, who is in second place. The only places he isn’t dominating are the home states of opponents: Delaware (where Mr. Biden had the most donors), Indiana (Mr. Buttigieg), Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), Montana (Gov. Steve Bullock) and Texas (Mr. O’Rourke).

You can read the full analysis here.

The numbers show just how well Mr. Sanders is doing with small donors. His lead in total money raised is smaller: He has collected about $36 million, and Mr. Buttigieg is in second place with $32 million. Ms. Warren is in third place by that measure.

Harris takes a position on health care

“Medicare for all” has become a litmus test among the 2020 Democrats, separating those on the left from more moderate contenders.

On Monday, we got clarity on Ms. Harris’s position when she unveiled her own health care plan, stopping short of the complete overhaul Mr. Sanders has proposed.

In essence, Ms. Harris is making “Medicare for all” a long-term target while seeking to keep a significant role for private insurers, which Mr. Sanders’s plan would eliminate. Instead of creating a single-payer system, she would allow people to choose plans modeled on Medicare Advantage, which would be run by private insurers. But she would also offer a somewhat expanded version of traditional, government-run Medicare to all Americans.

“Essentially, we would allow private insurance to offer a plan in the Medicare system, but they will be subject to strict requirements to ensure it lowers costs and expands services,” Ms. Harris wrote on Medium. “If they want to play by our rules, they can be in the system. If not, they have to get out.”

In other policy news:

It was a big policy week for Ms. Harris, who also released a plan to close the racial “opportunity gap” and introduced legislation with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to ensure that climate change policies benefit low-income communities. Her opportunity gap proposal includes $60 billion for STEM education at historically black colleges and universities and student loan forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients who start businesses in low-income areas.

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City proposed a series of tax increases on the rich, including a wealth tax on assets above $10 million and a 0.2 percent tax on stock trades. He also wants to reverse the Trump administration’s corporate tax cut, eliminate preferential tax rates for capital gains and add two new income tax brackets: a 50 percent marginal rate for income between $1 million and $2 million, and 60 percent above $2 million.

Mr. Delaney released a plan to make a year of national service mandatory for all Americans when they turn 18. Options would include military service, community service, infrastructure apprenticeships and a climate corps. Participants would be paid and receive two years of free tuition at a public college or university; anyone who chose to serve longer would receive a third year of free tuition.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington released a nine-part labor plan, titled “Organizing the American Dream,” that includes a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave and expanded union bargaining rights. He also announced a “community climate justice” plan that would establish a new Office of Environmental Justice, among other measures.

Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio unveiled an “Industrial Plan for America.” It calls for the creation of a National Manufacturing Office that would develop and carry out a national manufacturing strategy.

Mr. Yang rolled out a multipart veterans plan that, among other things, calls for a “reverse boot camp” at the end of military service to help reorient service members to civilian life.

Matt Stevens is a political reporter based in New York. He previously worked for The Los Angeles Times, covering drought, water and the city’s west side. @ByMattStevens

Maggie Astor is a political reporter based in New York. Previously, she was a general assignment reporter and a copy editor for The Times and a reporter for The Record in New Jersey. @MaggieAstor

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