Fox Business Confirms Eight Candidates Make Primetime Debate

Two formerly primetime candidates have failed to make the cut for Tuesday’s Republican Debate hosted by the Fox Business Network. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee failed to make the 2.5% polling average threshold and will appear during the earlier 6pm undercard debate along with former Sen. Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Fox Business Network Republican Debate

Live Stream: FoxBusiness.com (free stream)

9pm ET (8pm CT, 6pm PT) – Main Debate
Candidates: Trump, Carson, Rubio, Bush, Fiorina, Cruz, Kasich, Paul

7pm ET (6pm CT, 4pm PT) – Undercard Debate
Candidates: Christie, Huckabee, Jindal, Santorum

Moderators: Neil Cavuto, Maria Bartiromo, and Gerard Baker

Report from Politico:

Chris Christie failed to make the cut for the main stage at next week’s Fox Business Network/Wall Street Journal debate, a major blow for the New Jersey governor who has struggled to gain traction in the presidential race.

Christie, along with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, failed to meet the 2.5 percent average polling threshold, meaning they’ll both be bumped to a 7 p.m. undercard debate on Tuesday, appearing alongside former Sen. Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Christie and Huckabee weren’t the only ones to get bad news in the Fox Business lineup. Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki, and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore failed to register enough in four recent national polls to participate in the Nov. 10 event at all. They needed to get just 1 percent support in one of those polls. It will be Graham and Pataki’s first time not getting to participate.

Christie was just beginning to get some momentum in the last debate but his poll numbers haven’t reflected it. Then again, the last debate was just a week ago so it’s hard for things to shake out in this short time. Also noted, Pataki and Graham have been cut as they did not meet the minimum to appear in the earlier undercard debate.

The field has finally narrowed some now that we’ll be down to eight candidates on stage. This will make for a more lively debate as the remaining candidates will have more time for more questions and will be pushing to score some points with voters.


Nate Ashworth

The Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for over a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016 that continues today.

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