It’s finally happening. On Wednesday, 10 Democratic candidates will take the stage in Miami for the first debate of the 2020 presidential campaign. On Thursday, 10 different Democrats will do it again. Sure, it will be entertaining. But do debates actually matter? Debates “can lose you the campaign if you mess up too badly.” According to University of Alabama–Birmingham political scientist William Benoit, who has spent years studying the effects of candidate debates, the answer is yes. “Lots of things in the campaign have effects on the voters, and they accumulate over time,” Benoit says.