Now within three months to the opening contest in Iowa, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, formerVice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are still in the top tier of candidates, but South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has surged in the kickoff state of Iowa, increasing the scrutiny on his record and his level of experience as a 37-year-old candidate.
With his growing war chest and his rise in the polls, Buttigieg is the most likely target of the other nine candidates meeting tonight in Atlanta for the two hour MSNBC/Washington Post debate, which begins at 9 p.m. ET.
Given the setting in the southern state of Georgia -- where Democratic voters will go to the polls on March 24 -- some of the candidates may seek to highlight one of the biggest weaknesses of Buttigieg's candidacy: his lack of support among black voters, who are the core of the Democratic base.
In the 2016 Democratic primaries, CNN exit polls showed that the black vote factored heavily in the outcome in many of the early states in the south. Black voters made up 61% of the electorate in South Carolina; 54% in Alabama; 51% in Georgia; 32% in Tennessee and 32% in North Carolina.
Buttigieg's weakness in that area -- he has made little headway in early states like South Carolina, for example -- was amplified by the recent controversy over the use of stock photo of a woman from Kenya on his campaign website to promote his Douglass plan, a proposal that he says would dismantle "racist structures and systems" to invest in black Americans.
That controversy is likely to come up on Wednesday. During an appearance in Las Vegas earlier this week, California Sen. Kamala Harris said Buttigieg would have to "answer for that." When pressed on Buttigieg's lack of support among black voters, Harris pointed out that the eventual nominee must demonstrate deep support within the black community.
"You can't unify folks if you don't understand who they are and their specific needs and the right that they have to be represented based not a stock photograph, but who they actually are," Harris said.
In a series of tweets, the Buttigieg campaign's rapid response director Sean Savett said the stock photo was selected while a contractor was running the campaign's site. "As our campaign has grown, we have brought all of our web development in-house to help guard against mistakes like this. We apologize for its use and for the confusion it caused," Savett said.
The candidates' matchup in the South also brings the race to an area that has so far been Biden's stronghold. No other candidate has been able to match his support among black voters, particularly black women who are the most influential constituency in the Democratic race. Biden will once again be looking to highlight his ties to former President Barack Obama, and Obama's decision to pick him as his vice president.
Wednesday night's debate may be overshadowed by a momentous day in the public impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill, a topic the candidates will no doubt be asked to address.
Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, testified that there was indeed a quid pro quo for Ukraine to announce investigations into the 2016 election and that came from Rudy Giuliani, the President's personal lawyer, at the "express direction of the President."
Sondland testified that members of Trump's inner circle -- including Vice President Mike Pence, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Pompeo -- were aware of the President's desires. When the White House inexplicably froze $400 million in security aid to Ukraine, Sondland testified that he raised the issue with Pence.
President Donald Trump, Sondland testified, also "wanted a public statement from President (Volodymyr) Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election," which he later took to understand as an investigation of Biden and his son, Hunter. Giuliani, in turn, "expressed those requests directly to the Ukrainians" and to Sondland, among others: "We all understood that these pre-requisites for the White House call and White House meeting reflected President Trump's desires and requirements."
Biden's son, Hunter Biden, served on the board of Burisma. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by either Biden.
Joining Biden, Buttigieg, Warren, Sanders and Harris at the debate Wednesday night are New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, businessman Tom Steyer and businessman Andrew Yang.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, Kristen Welker and the Washington Post's Ashley Parker will moderate the debate.
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