The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (9)

Time to update my social experiment with the top nine Dems running for the 2020 nomination.  As you know Beto O'Rourke dropped out last week, leaving me with one less bell to answer. This is the 9th update I've done since signing up for emails from the leading candidates; you can read the history of all this in last week's edition.

So -- let's get the numbers out of the way first: things have sort of levelled off with the gang, it seems. I got a total of 146 emails, with four candidates - Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Julian Castro and Kamala Harris - each sending 18. The rest of them weren't far behind: Amy Klobuchar (17), Pete Buttigieg (16), Elizabeth Warren (15), Bernie Sanders (14) and Andrew Yang (12).

There were a lot of emails around the end-of-October fundraising deadline, and how they did; there were emails about it being 100 days from the New Hampshire primary (we saw the same for Iowa) and November 3rd being 365 days from the 2020 vote.

Here's what else the candidates wanted me to know:

• Joe Biden: good polls showing him ahead of the other Dems (and Trump); Trump  joking about asking Ukraine for help beating Joe; attacks from Sanders and Warren (the latter suggested he was running "in the wrong primary") and being worried about how much money those two have, and that Trump raised $3M the day the impeachment vote was taken. 

• Cory Booker: the November debate, hosting a debate watch party, and the tightening of requirements for the one in December; finding unity as a party and country to win the election; the impeachment vote being a sad day for America; pictures from Iowa, and a message about what people really want. 

• Pete Buttigieg: lots of info from Iowa, the Liberty and Justice celebration, and the resonating message he's been sharing; a chance to win a trip to a Notre Dame football game; a message from a disabled supporter; his new ad, and the 'fishbowl' video. 

• Julian Castro: continuing to be the most desperate of the remaining candidates, the emails were very similar to last time. He did have two mentions about his new criminal justice plan and spending time with prisoners, but other that that and the debates, it's money money money. 

• Kamala Harris: a couple of emails from "Kamala's husband (Doug)" this time, don't remember seeing those before. Kamala is focused on Iowa Iowa Iowa and the upcoming debates (she's qualified for December); Tom Steyer's folks stole her data; Jeff Sessions is in the race in Alabama. and you can split a donation between Kamala and Doug Jones if you want, and there's some new fall merch. 

• Amy Klobuchar: Iowa, the November and December debates (she's qualified for both, one of ten for November and six, so far, for December); she reminded me of her record of winning, including in 2018 when she won more than 40 counties won by the president in 2016. 

• Bernie Sanders: AOC is all over the place - there was an email from her asking me to join her in endorsing him, one from him sharing her earlier email, and one letting me know that AOC and Sanders would be appearing together in Iowa. He's got some new merch, including a shirt bearing the picture of him being arrested back in the 60s. 

• Elizabeth Warren: I could get a phone call from one of the 'Queer Eye' guys for donating; several mentions of her Medicare for All plan; negative press from rich people; new merch, and a story from her 2012 campaign about a poor college student donating to her campaign each month. 

• Andrew Yang: he's got his first ad on TV, he's worried about qualifying for the December debate; he offered a split donation to Virginia Dems and his campaign,  he's got new merch, including a new hat that will give $1 to the USO for every purchase, and we heard from his wife Evelyn for the first time.

There weren't a lot of outstanding candidates for email of the week, but I'm choosing the one from Cory Booker about his friend and mentor, a guy named Frank. Here's an excerpt talking about time he and Frank spent doing tenants' rights work, which often involved gathering information from families living in less than optimal conditions.

Sometimes, the meetings would go on for hours. I would grow restless and impatient -- most folks were saying much of the same things, and I already had all the information I needed for our case.

But Frank never rushed anyone. He sat and he listened.

After one especially long meeting, I said something to Frank about how long it was. And without judgment or pride, he told me that the meetings were about more than just fixing the buildings. The meetings were about more than sharing information.

They were about making people feel seen and heard and understood. They were about giving people a platform and a place to know that they were not alone.

They were about healing.

The email goes on with Booker asking us to do more than just beating Donald Trump (that's the floor, not the ceiling, he says), he wants us to believe in an America

• where we come together to take on our biggest challenges -- from the epidemic of gun violence to the disease of addiction.
• that leads the world because we invest in people. In good jobs in every community. In a high quality public education for every child.
• that doesn’t shrink into isolation in the face of the world’s biggest challenges, but leads and unites the world’s great democracies to take it on.
• where you can turn on the news and see our leaders and feel pride and not shame.
• where we revive civic grace, where we extend a more courageous empathy to one another and where nobody gets left on the sidelines and nobody gets left behind.

Onward we go.