Fox News and Facebook, in conjunction with the Ohio Republican Party, will kick off the first presidential debate in Cleveland tonight at 9 p.m. EDT. The huge Republican field puts Fox News and the other media outlets sponsoring debates in a difficult situation because the logistics of managing a 17-candidate forum are quite unwieldy.
As a result, the network has limited this debate to the top 10 candidates selected from an average of the five most recent national polls. Making the cut for primetime debate in order of polling strength are: businessman Donald Trump, former Gov. Jeb Bush, Gov. Scott Walker, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, Dr. Ben Carson, Gov. Chris Christie, and Gov. John Kasich.
The seven other candidates – former Sen. Rick Santorum, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Gov. George Pataki, and former Gov. Jim Gilmore - will instead be featured in a 5 p.m. EDT debate.
Moderating the main event will be Fox anchors Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly, and Brett Baier. Due to the high number of participants, there will be no opening statements and candidates will have one minute to answer direct questions.
The second debate will take place at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA next month followed by ten more throughout the rest of 2015 and into the first few months of 2016.
The Democratic Party has said that there will be six debates, but have announced no specifics yet.
For more information, please contact David Ashinoff at ashinoffd@agc.org or (202) 547-5013.