There are a total of 15 candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination. Only eight will get to participate on the main stage at the next debate, with Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee relegated to the secondary debate because of their low poll numbers. Both candidates had previously participated in the main debates.
Fox News explains how Christie and Huckabee were left out of the main debate. Candidates had to average at least 2.5 percent of the vote in the last four national polls. Despite his diatribe against fantasy football during last week’s CNBC matchup, Christie failed to make the cut for this reason.
Christie will, however, get to debate Huckabee, along with Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and former senator Rick Santorum, where candidates had to poll at a minimum of 1 percent in one of the last four national polls to qualify (Lindsey Graham and George Pataki failed to qualify at all).
The New Jersey governor remains defiant in the face of this no-so-great news for his campaign. Here’s the response he posted on Twitter:
It doesn’t matter the stage, give me a podium and I’ll be there to talk about real issues like this: https://t.co/Fqu5Qi2piX #BringItOn
— Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) November 6, 2015
The undercard debate airs at 7 p.m. on November 10, with the main debate to take place later at 9. Both are hosted by the Fox Business Network. Perhaps Huckabee will do some great live-tweeting of the main event, just like he did with the Democratic debate last month.