“Just this week, in New Hampshire, we had bigger crowds at the Exeter Town Hall than Bill Clinton”.
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The Fox Business Network announcement coincided with polls showing Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz running neck-and-neck for the top spot in Iowa, and Mr. Trump leading the field in New Hampshire.
According to RealClearPolitics today, Mr. Kasich was tied for 5th place with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 9.8 percent.
“We think it’s a rotten thing to do to try to designate which candidates have a chance and don’t, and so we will not participate in anything that’s not first tier”, Paul said.
Debate host Fox Business Network announced the debate lineup Monday evening, dealing a blow to both candidates three weeks before Iowa’s leadoff presidential caucuses. Rick Santorum for the 6 p.m. debate.
“It looks very likely that he’ll be on the main stage on Thursday”.
Recent polling suggests that including the Iowa and New Hampshire polls helped Kasich make the cut, as he is performing much better in New Hampshire than he is nationally. “But if not, a bump didn’t hurt Christie”, Ms. Wehrkamp said.
Undercard debate invites have gone out to Sen.
Paul is slated to participate in the so-called undercard debate, but acknowledged he won’t be participating and called the decision a mistake.
As of this morning, if Fox uses the RealClearPolitics average of polls – which they don’t have to do, seven people would be on stage. On the main debate stage will be: GOP front-runner Donald Trump, Sen. He’ll be joined on stage by Texas Sen.
Prior to Monday, Paul had qualified for each of the primetime debates. The same holds true in scenarios in which the network substitutes the Gravis poll for December polls released by Loras College, Quinnipiac University, or Monmouth University. Iowans gave Trump 31 percent of the vote, followed by Cruz at 29 percent and Rubio at 15 percent.
The poll sample was 340 Republicans.
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The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
