Here's who made the cut for Thursday's GOP debate

Fox News has announced the 10 Republican presidential contenders who will take part in Thursday's debate. 

|
Richard Drew/AP Photo/File
Donald Trump announces that he seek the Republican nomination for president, in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on June 16, 2015. Mr. Trump will be one of 10 GOP hopefuls who will participate in the first prime time debate of the 2016 presidential race. The debate will air Thursday, Aug. 6, on Fox News.

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has made the cut for Thursday night's leadoff debate of the 2016 presidential race, joined by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and seven other Republican contenders.

Seven others will be excluded, including former technology executive Carly Fiorina and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, relegated to a pre-debate forum and second-tier status in the party's crowded field. Fox News announced the 10 Republican White House hopefuls who will take part in the debate.

Trump, after launching his campaign with a speech that labeled Mexican immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists," was initially thought to have no chance in the race, but the latest polls show him far outdistancing the top-tier mainstream Republican candidates. However, his negative numbers in the polls are also high and most observers remain skeptical about his chances of securing the nomination.

Beyond Trump, those selected among the top 10 – based on recent national polls – include Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Making the cut could boost the chances of lesser-known candidates like Kasich.

The debate will be a key test for Trump. Some polls show his backing has grown to nearly double that of Bush, the brother and son of presidents.

Those who didn't make the field for the first debate include Fiorina, the party's only female presidential candidate, Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.

The announcement comes after the Republican Party that worked aggressively to improve its debates ahead of the election season. Yet with the largest field of contenders in modern memory, organizers say something had to give to ensure the debate in Cleveland didn't turn into a nationally televised circus.

"We never ever envisioned we'd have 17 major candidates," said Steve Duprey, New Hampshire's representative to the Republican National Committee who helped craft the debate plan. "There's no perfect solution."

Republican officials worked closely with TV executives, although the networks have the final say about which candidates will be allowed on stage for their televised events.

Fox News is the host of Thursday's event, the first of six party-sanctioned debatesbefore primary voting begins in February. The network says it used a selection of national polls to make this week's cut.

Republican officials were particularly concerned about Fiorina's status, hoping she would help balance Hillary Rodham Clinton's push to rally women to her candidacy. Trump's recent surge in the polls was particularly damaging to Fiorina.

The reality television star's rapid rise has surprised many Republican officials, some of whom fear his rhetoric on immigration and other divisive issues could hurt the party. In a Tuesday interview, Trump said he's been defying expectations all his life.

"I think people are tired, they're sick and tired of incompetent politicians," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" when asked to explain his rise.

Fox didn't say before Tuesday's announcement which polls it would use to determine its top 10. Many candidates are grouped together in the single digits, most separated by a number smaller than the margin of error.

For example, in a Monmouth University survey released Monday, Kasich was the 10th candidate with the support of 3.2 percent of voters.

But after taking the margin of error into account, Monmouth noted that Kasich's support could be as low as 1.5 percent, while almost any of the candidates who polled lower could be that high or higher.

Monmouth found that only five candidates – Trump, Bush, Walker, Cruz and Huckabee – were definitely in the top tier of candidates, while just two – Pataki and Gilmore – would not make it into the top 10 even when margin of error was taken into account.

All but three of the 17 Republican candidates for president participated in a New Hampshire forum Monday night that was essentially a "debate lite." Unlike Thursday's nationally televised debate in Cleveland, the gathering didn't have a cut-off for participation.

Without exception, the candidates aimed their criticism at Democrats instead of each other. Trump declined to participate and wasn't mentioned during the two-hour affair.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Here's who made the cut for Thursday's GOP debate
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2015/0804/Here-s-who-made-the-cut-for-Thursday-s-GOP-debate
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe