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, DES MOINES, IOWA- The 7th Democratic Primary Debate, the first one of the New Year, will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 14 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and ahead of the Feb. 3 Iowa Democratic Caucuses.

No Blacks will participate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris quitting the race for president in December, and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, now the only Black in the race for president, failing to qualify.

The five candidates meeting the increased polling and fundraising requirements set by the Democratic National Committee to debate next week  are former vice president Joe Biden, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg,  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Minnesota Sen Amy Klobuchar.

Hosted by CNN and the Des Moines Register, the upcoming debate comes as the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election nears and Democrats work to unseat President Donald Trump from the White House and amid an upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate against the embattled Republican president, a billionaire real estate mogul who narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to win the presidency in 2016.

Biden, who leads all of the candidates in the polls, Warren, Sanders, and Buttigieg are the national frontrunners, Buttigieg the front- runner for the Iowa Democratic Caucuses, though Iowa is 91 percent White.

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 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.