https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/at ... ic-debate/If you thought all the remaining primary debates were going to be one-night affairs, think again. On Sunday, billionaire activist Tom Steyer got his fourth qualifying poll thanks to an early-state survey from Nevada, which means 11 candidates have now met the polling and donor thresholds for the Democrats’ fourth debate. And Tulsi Gabbard has announced that, based on one subset of respondents, she got a third qualifying poll this weekend, but the Democratic National Committee has confirmed that it is looking at different set of respondents and the poll will not count for her.
The fourth debate is scheduled for Oct. 15 and possibly Oct. 16 (the DNC hasn’t yet confirmed whether it will use a second debate night now that more than 10 candidates have qualified). The qualification thresholds are the same as those for the third debate: Candidates must attract both 2 percent support in four qualifying national or early-state polls released between June 28 and Oct. 1, and collect contributions from 130,000 unique donors (including at least 400 individual donors in at least 20 states).1 Given these rules, the 10 candidates who qualified for the third debate automatically made the fourth debate. And a CBS News/YouGov poll was the last survey Steyer needed to qualify.
A mere 15 years ago, Republican George W. Bush cemented Westerville's reputation as a solid GOP area by rolling up a 23-point margin on his way to a narrow Ohio win that propelled him to a second term as president. Democrat Barack Obama lost in Westerville by almost double digits in the following two elections. But by 2016, the suburb northeast of Columbus had gone from deep red to light blue, preferring Democrat Hillary Clinton by 4 points even though Donald Trump took the Buckeye State by 8.
The changing political character of Westerville and suburbs across the nation make it the perfect locale for the fourth Democratic presidential debate, the party's Ohio chairman, David Pepper, said Friday after the Democratic National Committee announced the city will play host to that debate.
https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190913/ ... estervilleThe debate, at Otterbein University's Rike Center, presumably will be a two-night event, Oct. 15 and 16, since 11 candidates already are qualified.
In Ohio, "a seismic shift in voting patterns in previously Republican suburbs has fundamentally changed the math, and map, of the state," Pepper said. And Westerville "is ground zero in that shift," he said in a new report prepared for the national news media. “Suburban voters, particularly women, are backing Democratic candidates in response to the broken promises and toxic agenda of Donald Trump," Pepper said in a release. "In 2018, Ohio House Democrats flipped six seats from red to blue, and those pickups came in suburban communities like Westerville. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s seven-point victory was powered not just by traditional Democratic voters, but by historic gains in our suburbs."
But Ohio GOP press secretary Elizabeth Giannone sees it differently. It doesn't really matter to Republicans where the Democrats debate, she said, because "Ohioans have made it clear that their radical ideas are not welcome here." "President Trump's pro-growth policies have created a booming economy, and in 2016 we flipped traditionally blue counties red. President Trump won Ohio by 8 points, and we are still feeling that momentum thanks to the president's leadership. The Democrats' radical agendas, policies that will only result in higher taxes on the middle class, simply don't resonate here."
The Westerville matchup will be moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett, and by Marc Lacey of The New York Times. The format has not been determined.
Ohio is a swing state, they won't come to the Pacific coast it's already blue.