Following the overture, the real play is about to begin. On Thursday night, Fox News will host the first Republican debate for the 2016 presidential race. The primetime debate will include 10 candidates who lead a recent poll by the network, while the remaining seven will debate among themselves in an afternoon broadcast.
Fox News invited Donald Trump, who has lead polls as of late; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, sitting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; sitting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and sitting Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The battle for that last spot was interesting, since Kasich just nudged out former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey GRaham also didn’t make the cut and will be among seven candidates at an afternoon debate. The others attending that debate are former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; former HP chief Carly Fiorina; former New York Gov. George Pataki; and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
The debate is being held at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland and is hosted by Fox News, Facebook and the Ohio Republican Party. The primetime debate starts at 9 p.m. Thursday, while the afternoon one is at 5 p.m.
Keep in mind, the debate is 11 months before the GOP convention in Cleveland in July 2016 and nearly seven months before the Iowa caucuses.
image courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski/INFphoto.com