Peninsula GOP Faithful to Watch Party's Presidential Debate

San Mateo County Republican leaders expect about 40 right-leaning residents this evening in Menlo Park to watch a GOP presidential debate, a county GOP official said.

The watch party is scheduled for 5 p.m. in the Moroney Room at the Dutch Goose, located at 3567 Alameda de las Pulgas.

The faithful will be cheering for their favorites and learning about the others, county GOP leaders said.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” San Mateo County GOP vice chair John McDowell said.

The last debate shook up the field with, for example, the rise of California’s Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard Co., McDowell said.

“This debate could easily do something similar,” he said. Republicans who came to the last watch party were “all over the board” in terms of which candidate they favored, McDowell said.

“I’ll be interested to see if that changes tonight,” he said.The debate is taking place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley in Southern California.

--Bay City News Service, photo via Shutterstock