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GOP presidential debate scheduled for Ohio
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Ohio will host one of nine sanctioned Republican presidential candidate debates later this year.
Selected venues were announced Friday at the Republican National Committee winter meeting in California.
The Ohio debate is slated for August. Other debates will take place in California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida through March 2016. Specific dates and site information will be released at a later date.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a released statement that the setup “will allow candidates to bring their ideas and vision to Americans in a timely and efficient way.”
He added, “This schedule ensures we will have a robust discussion among our candidates while also allowing the candidates to focus their time engaging with Republican voters. It is exciting that Republicans will have such a large bench of candidates to choose from, and the sanctioned debate process ensures voters will ... gain a chance to hear from them.”
The Republican National Convention is set for July 18-21, 2016, in Cleveland. Columbus is a finalist for the Democratic National Convention; a decision on that site is expected in the near future.