The candidates vying for the Democratic nod in 2020 each know that issues regarding race and diversity will be 2020 talking points. In keeping with the emphasis on diversity, Texas Southern University, an HBCU located in Houston, will be hosting the third Democratic debateon September 12th .

Texas Southern now joins Howard University as the only other HBCU to host a presidential debate.  

Miami: which has a 70 percent Hispanic population, and Detroit: the city with the second largest African American population, have both served as host cities during this debate cycle.  While they are both diverse cities, they’re also housed deeply inside of highly contested battle ground states. Texas Southern University in Houston is no different as Texas is now a Super Tuesday state. This means that the Texas primary will be decided on the same day as several other big delegate states like California and Massachusetts.

Interestingly, each city to host a Democratic debate this year also seems to represent issues virtually embedded into the 2020 election. In Miami, the debate about immigration and the need for sensible border policy raged on. In Detroit, residents are still coming back from the 2008 housing crisis, battling a horrible public education system, and the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the Motor City. Being that this is the first of the primary debates to be hosted on a university campus in this cycle, TSU will likely to represent the growing concern over rampant student debt. As a HBCU hosting a primary debate, the questions of criminal justice reform, the proliferation of white supremacy on the internet, as well as reparations for slavery could be a front and center issues.

The TSU debate is just the third of 22 scheduled meetings between the candidates, which may still have to be split into two separate nights in order to ensure that every candidate gets a fair shake. Better get used to it though. The DNC has essentially eliminated the ability of superdelegates to decide primary elections. That means that less recognizable candidates can duke it out for far longer than they ever have in the past. 

*Article by Raz Robinson, journalist and freelance writer, based in New York City and Philadelphia. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter @razrobinson or send an email at Rrob0904 (at) gmail (dot) com.