By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-COLUMBUS, Ohio-Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and 2020 Democratic presidential candidates South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, Tom Steyer, and Andrew Yang headlined the annual state dinner of the Ohio Democratic Party Sunday, Oct. 13 at the Convention Center in Columbus, the state capital and largest city in the state, Cleveland the second largest city in Ohio and a largely Black major American city.
All of the above presidential candidates, except for Ohio Congressman Ryan, who did not qualify for the debate, will join candidates former vice president Joe Biden, the front-runner, Julian Castro, who was a no show on Sunday, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for the Fourth Democratic Debate Tuesday evening Oct. 15 at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, a Columbus suburb.
Biden's campaign announced last Tuesday that he will visit Columbus on Oct. 31 without further specifics, Ohio a battleground state with no Democrat winning the White House without first winning Ohio and no Republican of remembrance doing so either.
A Youngstown, Ohio Democrat, Congressman Ryan says he is running a grassroots campaign and that voters will see beyond the debates and make him president, though he is, without a doubt, an underdog candidate.
This week's upcoming Democratic debate will showcase the 12 Democratic candidates who met the criteria to debate, a combination of individuals donors and national poll standings, a debate hosted by the DNC in cooperation with CNN and the New York Times
Only Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg and front-runner Biden are polling in double digits nationally, and of the five candidates who spoke at the state dinner on Sunday in Ohio, all but Buttigieg are polling at five percent or less nationwide.
"It will be all eyes on Ohio as our 2020 presidential candidates come to the Buckeye State this October for our biggest event of the year and the fourth Democratic presidential primary debate,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper in a press release. “As is happening across the nation, Democrats are energized, formerly Republican suburbs are trending blue and voters across the state are waking up to Donald Trump’s many broken promises. "
The five Democratic presidential candidates each spoke briefly and towards the bottom half of the program
Buttigieg, who is polling at 14 percent nationally, spoke first and garnered a standing ovation upon taking the podium.
He said the 2020 election is crucial and that "there is no permanently red state or county or district."
And Klobuchar, who is pollings at one percent, used her speech to challenge proposals by her progressive-minded Democratic presidential opponents, including Warren and Sanders, Klobuchar taking issue with their federal higher education subsidy proposals.
She says free college tuition for all is impractical, and expensive public policy, with Warren and Sanders arguing in general that the larger issue in not money but a failure to accommodate America's middle and working class while simultaneously making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
A lucrative businessman, Yang said Ohio Democrats must step to the plate and turn the state blue again, just like in 2008 when former president Barack Obama won both Ohio and the White House, and in 2012 when he did it again for reelection, current President Donald Trump, Obama's predecessor, taking the state in 2016 over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
"How did Donald Trump win Ohio by eight points,"? asked Yang.
Sunday's political gathering opened with a video shown to the audience on U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown's Dignity to Work campaign, Brown not in attendance at the event due to a prior engagement, organizers said.
It was followed by ODP Vice Chairwoman Rhine McLin, a former mayor of Dayton who is Black and said that "here in the buckeye state we always like to remind candidates that Ohio is the state that makes presidents."
McLin said the Dems will hold Republican Gov. Mike DeWine accountable in 2022 when he seeks reelection and accused him of doing nothing on gun control, and she said also that Democrats will also hold President Trump accountable in 2020 as he seeks four-more years in the White House.
Ohio Supreme Court Democratic judicial candidates Jennifer Brunner and John O'Donnell, both seeking election in 2020 to separate seats on the state's high court, spoke after McLin and before ODC Chairman David Pepper and DNC Chair Tom Perez, secretary of labor with the Obama administration.
Perez said that when the Dems take over the Supreme Court at both the state and federal levels they end gerrymandering, a hot topic in Ohio as the Republican-dominated Ohio state legislature will redraw its congressional map next year, Ohio currently with 12 Republican members of Congress and four Democrats, namely U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Marcia Fudge, Tim Ryan and Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat.
Congressional Democrats complain that Ohio's congressional map tilts Republican by design, a federal district court ruling earlier this year that Ohio's congressional map is unconstitutional, a decision rebuffed by the U.S. Court, which ruled that the current map will stand, a win for Republicans, Democrats contend.
The special guest speaker for the event, Perez said that Ohio needs a working majority on the Supreme Court like North Carolina.
Of North Carolina, he said "they have a working majority there, they are ending gerrymandering."
And he called President Trump "the most dangerous president in history."
Also a former assistant U.S. attorney general under Obama, Perez said "Ohio is a battleground state that we will win in 387 days."
He mentioned Women's March, which was initiated in Washington D.C. and cities across the country after Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, Cleveland's anniversary women's march set for Jan 18, 2020 on Public Square.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE FOR WOMEN'S MARCH CLEVELAND ON JANUARY 18, 2020 ON PUBLIC SQUARE
Incumbent Trump is fighting, he and his Republican comrades, to keep Ohio red in 2020.
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.
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