Next GOP Debate Stage Could Shrink to Six Candidates

The next GOP Debate is on:

Thursday, January 14, 2016
Fox Business Republican Debate
Aired On: Fox Business Network
Location: North Charleston, South Carolina
Sponsors: Fox Business Network

As few as six candidates could make this debate stage as Fox Business News' new criteria could drastically shrink the field less than a month before the Iowa caucuses.

Fox Business News announced three separate avenues to make the main stage, but those pathways are more restricted than in previous debates. Participants in the main stage debate on Jan. 14 must hit the top six in an average of five recent national polls, or top five in an average of recent polls from Iowa or New Hampshire.

The rest will qualify for another undercard debate, provided that they earn at least 1 percent in one of the qualifying polls.

Fox Business Network, as in the past, hasn't announced which polls it would use. But using current RealClearPolitics averages, Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Dr. Ben Carson, former Gov. Jeb Bush, and Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) currently sit in the National top six.

Those six candidates also make up the top five in Iowa and in New Hampshire, in a different order. So depending on which polls would qualify, no other candidates would make the main stage as of now.

That would relegate Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Carly FIorina, Gov. John Kasich (Ohio), Carly Fiorina, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Sen. Rick Santorum, and former Gov. George Paraki to the under-card debate weeks before the first votes of 2016 are cast.

Sen. Paul said he will not attend the undercharge debate.











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