As candidates jockey to make the cut for the first Republican debate on Thursday, some high profile politicians will be watching from the wings.
The debate will feature only the
top 10 candidates in the average of the five most recent national polls, and Tuesday marks the deadline to make the cut.
According to Politico,
former Texas Gov. Rick Perry appears unlikely to join his rivals on the stage in Cleveland. After a Fox News poll was released Monday night,
Perry's average polling score is at just 2 percent.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appear to have leapfrogged Perry, likely securing their places at the podium with an average of 3 percent.
A
national Bloomberg poll out Tuesday appeared to solidify their standing for the final spots.
Fox is expected to announce the participants shortly after the deadline.
Donald Trump is in a commanding lead, according to every poll released this week. In both the Fox News poll and a
Monmouth University poll out Monday, he leads 2-1 over his next closest rival, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
In the Bloomberg poll, Trump also had double the support of second-place Bush, with 21 percent compared to 10 percent, respectively.
And a
CBS/New York Times poll out Tuesday put Trump at 24 percent compared to 13 percent for Bush.
As for the remainder likely to be on the stage, the Fox poll puts the candidates in the following order:
- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 9 percent
- Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Caron at 7 percent
- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 6 percent
- Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida at 5 percent
- Kasich and Christie at 3 percent
Among those likely to be sidelined:
- Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, weighing in with just 2 percent support.
- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is tied with Perry at 1 percent.
- Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki all register no support or under a half-point.
Fox told Politico that it has not yet decided which national polls will be used to make the determination.
"As we've said all along, we will base the top 10 on the five most recent polls leading up to 5 p.m. on Tuesday," said Fox News executive vice president Michael Clemente. "Since we don't know who is releasing polls, nor when that polling was done, nor the methodology, it would be impossible for anyone to know what polls will be used."
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