A 2020 Cheat Sheet: How 21 Democrats Answered Our Questions Before the Debates

Which Democratic candidates believe that the next president could stop climate change? Which candidates don’t believe that?

And where do they stand on the future of health care, handguns, big tech, the Supreme Court and other issues that may come up at the debates on Wednesday and Thursday night?

The New York Times has already asked most of them about these topics — here is a quick cheat sheet to their answers:

1. Does anyone deserve to have a billion dollars?

• Yes: 9 candidates (Bullock, Castro, Delaney, Gabbard, Harris, Moulton, Swalwell, Williamson, Yang)

• No: 4 candidates (Bennet, Buttigieg, Gillibrand, O’Rourke)

• The rest of the candidates gave nuanced answers. Many expressed deep concerns about economic inequality but offered different visions for how extreme wealth should be treated.

[See the candidates’ full responses on billion-dollar fortunes.]

• Improve: 4 candidates (Bennet, Bullock, Klobuchar, Moulton)

• Replace: 6 candidates (Castro, de Blasio, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Sanders, Yang)

• The other candidates gave answers that were more ambiguous, with many saying they would focus both on improving the Affordable Care Act in the short term and replacing it with some form of universal, single-payer health care in the long term.

[See the candidates’ full responses on health care.]

3. Do you think illegal immigration is a major problem in the United States?

• Democratic lawmakers have opposed President Trump’s hard-line immigration policies and called for an overhaul of the immigration system.

• But only a few candidates addressed whether they saw illegal immigration itself as a problem.

[See the candidates’ full responses on immigration.]

• Yes: 7 candidates (Bennet, Castro, de Blasio, Delaney, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Ryan)

• No: 4 candidates (Buttigieg, Moulton, Klobuchar, Yang)

• Several other candidates said the president and the United States could lead the charge but that stopping climate change could not be done alone.

[See the candidates’ full responses on climate change.]

5. Would there be American troops in Afghanistan at the end of your first term?

• No: 11 candidates (Bennet, Booker, Bullock, Buttigieg, Castro, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Klobuchar, O’Rourke, Sanders, Warren)

• Yes or maybe, but limited: 7 candidates (Delaney, Harris, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Moulton, Ryan, Swalwell)

• In Kamala Harris’s full response, she says the United States should have a presence in Afghanistan “in terms of supporting what the leaders of Afghanistan want to do.”

• The others — Bill de Blasio, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang — either hedged or subtly dodged the question.

[See the candidates’ full responses on troops in Afghanistan.]

6. Do you think President Trump has committed crimes in office?

• Yes: 9 candidates (Bennet, de Blasio, Delaney, Inslee, Moulton, O’Rourke, Ryan, Swalwell, Warren)

• Many candidates said Mr. Trump’s behavior and actions raised questions about illegality but they resisted asserting that he had committed crimes.

• Five candidates — John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julián Castro and Ms. Harris — answered the question before the release of the Mueller report.

[See the candidates’ full responses on Mr. Trump’s legal issues.]

7. Do you support or oppose the death penalty?

• Oppose: 20 candidates (everyone except Steve Bullock).

• Mr. Bullock said he supported capital punishment in “limited circumstances,” such as for convicted terrorists.

[See how all candidates responded on the death penalty.]

8. Should tech giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google be broken up?

• Yes: 5 candidates (de Blasio, Gabbard, Sanders, Warren, Williamson)

• No: 2 candidates (Moulton, Swalwell)

• Many other candidates said they were open to the idea of breaking up tech giants or called for different ways of regulating them to curtail their power and reach.

[See the candidates’ full responses on tech regulation.]

9. Are you open to expanding the size of the Supreme Court?

• Yes: 9 candidates (Bullock, Gillibrand, Harris, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Klobuchar, Moulton, Warren, Yang)

• No: 11 candidates (Bennet, Booker, Castro, de Blasio, Delaney, Gabbard, O’Rourke, Ryan, Sanders, Swalwell, Williamson)

• Though Pete Buttigieg has backed expanding the court, he was less committal here.

[See the candidates’ full responses on the size of the Supreme Court.]

10. In an ideal world, would anyone own handguns?

• Yes: 8 candidates (Bennet, Bullock, Gabbard, O’Rourke, Ryan, Sanders, Swalwell, Warren)

• Mr. Castro was the only candidate to say unequivocally that no one would own handguns in an ideal world.

• The rest of the candidates hedged or said they supported the Second Amendment and were not opposed to gun ownership, but did not answer the question directly.

[See the candidates’ full responses on guns.]

We also asked the candidates eight other questions on video. Watch them answer all 18 questions.

Video by Jonah M. Kessel, Meg Felling and Shane O’Neill. Additional reporting by Alexander Burns.