Fox News Announces GOP Candidates Who Will Participate in First Debate — Here's Who Made the Cut

Fox News announced Tuesday evening the ten Republican 2016 hopefuls who will participate in the first primetime debate of the election season.

Real estate billionaire Donald Trump, who polled the highest, will be in center stage for Thursday night's debate.

The other nine candidates will include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

The candidates were chosen based on their poll numbers averaged from the five most recent national polls. The polls used to obtain the average were conducted by Bloomberg, CBS News, Fox News, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University, Fox News said.

The remaining candidates have been invited to be included on stage for the 5:00 p.m. ET debate.

CLEVELAND (@AP) — Fiorina, Perry, Jindal, Graham, Santorum, Pataki, Gilmore miss cut for first GOP 2016 debate.

— TheBlazeNOW (@TheBlazeNOW)

August 4, 2015

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