Democratic Presidential Candidates Converging On South Florida, Preparing For First Primary Debates

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The first Democratic debates in the 2020 race for the White House will get underway on Wednesday night in Miami.

Some of the candidates are already in South Florida, and others arrived on Tuesday.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was at Florida International University for a town hall on Tuesday night.

"I'm delighted that more people are actually talking about the cancellation of student loans. This is a historic moment in America," Warren said.

She responded to Sen. Bernie Sanders proposing a plan to eliminate $1.6 trillion dollars in student debt.

Warren has a plan to tax the wealthy. She explained what the money will be used for if she's elected.

"To provide universal childcare, universal pre-k, raise the wages of all of our childcare and pre-workers. To provide for, tuition-free technical school, two-year college and four-year college," said Warren.

Fellow candidate, Congressman Beto O'Rourke focused on education when he took part in a town hall at North Miami Middle School Tuesday afternoon.

"It's not just the funding and the resources, and the facilities, It's also attracting and retaining teachers who look like the students that they're instructing in that classroom," O'Rourke said.

While talking about children, the former Texas Senate candidate, who didn't win his election against Sen. Ted Cruz, criticized having migrant children facilities open.

"You don't lose the lives of seven children in our custody. The first time this has happened in more than a decade," said O'Rourke. "You don't put them in cages. You don't separate them from their families. You don't torture them the way we've been torturing them."

O'Rourke also told teachers unions about his previous campaign in Texas and using that as evidence on how he was able to attract new voters and support.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee visited Little Haiti for a listening tour on public health and environmental justice. Inslee, who promoted his environmental platform, said it's time to "wake up and smell the carbon dioxide."

"Carbon dioxide pollution is not only the highest in American history, but it's also the highest in our time on earth. And it is maddening to me, and we ought to be angry about this," Inslee said.

Inslee also spoke about how the Trump administration is moving away from sustainable energy of the future by promoting the past.

"(We) deserve someone that will be willing to buck the coal industry. Look this is an administration totally owned by the fossil fuel industry. We need a leader such as myself, who will look those people in the eye and say, this won't do anymore. We're not going to shell out $20 billion for your goodies anymore. We're going to build a clean energy economy and put 8 million people to work. That's what America needs and I'm up to that challenge and that promise," said Inslee.

Inslee said we have to unite against the threat of climate change.

"This should not be a partisan issue, it is both Re publicans and Democrats whose homes are burning down in California. It is both Republicans and Democrats today in Miami whose homes are being flooded. Having to pay taxes by the millions of dollars to raise the streets here," he said. "Climate change is not a problem. It is an emergency."

The Democratic presidential debates will take place Wednesday and Thursday at the Adrienne Arsht Center.