Pictured are U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), a former California attorney general and the only Black female candidate in the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America, and U.S. Senator Cory Booker(D-NJ) of New Jersey, a former Newark mayor and the only Black male in the race

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio- U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, the only two Blacks in the race for president, have made the cut for the Fourth Democratic Debate on Oct. 15 at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, a Columbus suburb, Columbus the state capital and the largest city by population in Ohio, a battleground state.

Some 12 Democratic candidates will take to the stage as the 2020 election nears.

Harris and Booker also qualified for the other three debates,  the qualification criteria based on a combination of campaign donors and standings in national polls.

The third debate was held last month for one night on the campus of Texas Southern in Houston where a panel of 10 candidates for the Democratic nomination for president  showcased themselves with former vice president Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts the front-runners.

Only Biden, Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and  Sen Bernie Sanders, who is recovering from heart surgery, are polling in double digits, Sanders and set to debate too, he told reporters after surviving a heart attack earlier this month.

The first two debates, the first in Miami and the second in Detroit, had 20 candidates for each debate, both spread out over two nights, some 50 million television viewers tuning in for the two-night first debate in Miami that was sponsored by NBC and MSNBC, with half the television viewers nationwide watching the second two-night debate in Detroit, CNN the sponsor of the second debate.

Historically speaking, there has never been more than two Black candidates for the Democratic nomination for president on a national debate stage at one time, the last time in 2004 when former U.S. senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, and of whom lost reelection after serving three terms in Congress, and the Rev Al Sharpton were candidates.

Other Black candidates for the Democratic nomination over the years include the late and former New York congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress and the first Black major party candidate for president, former Rep. Barbara Jordan, also deceased and the first Black elected to the Texas senate and the first Black southern Black woman elected to Congress, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

Only one Black, among both Democrats and Republicans, has reached the status of a presidential nominee of a major American political party, that being two-term former president Barack Obama, a Democrat and the nation's first Black president. .

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.