--- title: Democratic Debate Poll: Who Won the Third Debate? description: A post-debate poll canonical: https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-20T03:44:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:29.174Z article:section: Politics og:title: Vote Now: Who Won the Third Democratic Presidential Debate? og:description: A post-debate poll. og:url: https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5326 og:image:height: 2996 og:image:alt: Dem 2016 Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vote Now: Who Won the Third Democratic Presidential Debate? twitter:description: A post-debate poll. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vote Now: Who Won the Third Democratic Presidential Debate? > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=96d777d8-a8f1-493d-93f9-22d9582da06c&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lTPNqlFm.m3u8) (1:54)  _Published 2015-12-20. Here are the highlights from the final Democratic debate of 2015._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 20, 2015 3:44 AM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 20, 2015 3:44 AM UTC Democrats met for their third presidential debate Saturday, and we want to know who you think won the night. Take a moment to click the link below next to the candidate who you thought did the best at the ABC News debate in New Hampshire. A disclaimer: Online reader polls like this one are not statistically representative of eligible primary voters. They are a measure, however imprecise, of which candidates have the most energized online supporters, or most social media savvy fan base. After all, what they are counting is the number of Internet-devices controlled by people who want to vote. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Does secretary Clinton deserve an apology tonight? Yes, I apologize. We should move on because I don't think the American people are all that interested in this. [ MUSIC ] We're listening to the bickering back and forth. Maybe that's normal politics in Washington, but that is not the politics of higher purpose the people expect from our party. [ MUSIC ] And excuse me, no. Governor, now to be able to abide by the rules here, we'll call on you shortly. But I do wanna pick up on something. Actually passed, Comprehensive guns, safety legislation with a ban on combat assault weapons David. [ MUSIC ] They want American soldiers on the ground fighting them. [ MUSIC ] Giving them many more targets, and giving them a great recruiting opportunity. I believe in action, in which we put together a strong coalition of forces. [ MUSIC ] Out of pocket costs have gone up too much. And prescription drug costs have gone through the roof. The greed of wall street is destroying this economy. And it's destroying the lives of millions of Americans. This one falls under the category of " I have actually done this ". I believe that all of our kids should go into an income- based repayment plan. [ mmm ] [ MUSIC ] Must never surrender them to the fascist pleas of billionaires with big mouths. He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos- [ APPLAUSE ] Of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/"},"headline":"Vote Now: Who Won the Third Democratic Presidential Debate?","datePublished":"2015-12-20T03:44:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:29.174Z","description":"A post-debate poll","url":"https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","photography","Bernie Sanders","Martin O'malley"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9dba3db3d235eb89/698876380a4a228f429c79ae/democratic-debate-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dem 2016 Debate","caption":"Dem 2016 Debate","creditText":"Jim Cole—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/","name":"Vote Now: Who Won the Third Democratic Presidential Debate?"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes","description":"Here are the highlights from the final Democratic debate of 2015.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/lTPNqlFm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-20T05:14:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lTPNqlFm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/","duration":"PT1M54S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4154954/democratic-debate-third-poll/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```