NEWARK, N.J. — Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee have been relegated out of prime time and onto the undercard at next week’s GOP presidential debate.
And George Pataki and Lindsey Graham won’t appear at all.
That’s the decision announced Thursday night by Fox Business, which is hosting Tuesday’s debates in Milwaukee.
Eight candidates — Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Carly Fiorina — will appear in the prime-time debate. That’s the fewest of the GOP campaign so far.
The selections were made by the financial news network based on national preference polls.
Candidates had to average at least 2.5 percent or higher in the four most recent major polls conducted through Wednesday to be featured in the prime-time debate.
The threshold for the undercard was 1 percent. The undercard starts at 4 p.m. Mountain time, followed by the main event at 7 p.m.
