--- title: Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul Cut From Main Republican Debate description: Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul will be excluded from the main stage at Thursday's Republican presidential debate in Charleston, S.C. canonical: https://time.com/4176566/carly-fiorina-rand-paul-republican-debate/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-12T00:29:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:33.185Z article:section: Politics og:title: Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul Cut From Main Republican Debate og:description: Paul said he'd skip the debate altogether og:url: https://time.com/4176566/carly-fiorina-rand-paul-republican-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc76def865dbb363a/698878a8cf40a80127c416b9/fiorina-rand-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Carly Fiorina speaks as Rand Paul listens during the Republican presidential debate at the Milwaukee Theatre, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul Cut From Main Republican Debate twitter:description: Paul said he'd skip the debate altogether twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc76def865dbb363a/698878a8cf40a80127c416b9/fiorina-rand-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul Cut From Main Republican Debate ## Video: Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch the Fifth Republican Debate In Four Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mQUMUx2k.m3u8) (4:00)  _Published 2015-12-16. Nine Republican presidential candidates faced off for the fifth Republican debate on CNN_ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jan 12, 2016 12:29 AM UTC  Carly Fiorina speaks as Rand Paul listens during the Republican presidential debate at the Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee on Nov. 11, 2015. Carly Fiorina speaks as Rand Paul listens during the Republican presidential debate at the Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee on Nov. 11, 2015.Morry Gash—AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jan 12, 2016 12:29 AM UTC Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul will be excluded from the main stage at Thursday’s Republican presidential debate in Charleston, S.C. because of lackluster poll numbers, Fox Business Network announced Monday. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich will participate in the primetime debate at 9 p.m. Thursday, the hosting network announced. The network required candidates to be among the top six in an average of national surveys, or in the top five in the average of surveys in Iowa or New Hampshire, in order to make the debate. Other candidates will be relegated to an earlier undercard debate starting at 6 p.m. Paul said he’d skip the debate altogether, rather than participate in the junior varsity contest, which will also include Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. “I’ll be taking my campaign directly to New Hampshire and Iowa. I’m not going to be in South Carolina,” Paul told CNN Monday evening. “It’s a mistake because the thing is we actually have been in the top five or six in most of the recent polls. In fact, last week in a national poll we were just one point out of fourth place. So I think it’s a mistake to try to exclude me from the national debate.” The network’s criteria result in Paul’s first downgrade to the undercard debate, and a snub to Fiorina, who was initially relegated to the earlier debate in the first contest this summer but worked her way onto the main stage. For Christie, it’s redemption, after he was forced into the undercard debate in November, before seeing his poll numbers rebound in Iowa, New Hampshire, and nationally. Unlikely previous efforts to winnow the field, the Fox Business Network decision may take on additional influence coming just weeks before the Iowa Caucuses. Fox News will host another debate on Jan. 28, four days before the caucuses, in Des Moines, but has yet to announce the entrance criteria. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4176566/carly-fiorina-rand-paul-republican-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4176566/carly-fiorina-rand-paul-republican-debate/"},"headline":"Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul Cut From Main Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-01-12T00:29:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:33.185Z","description":"Paul said he'd skip the debate altogether","url":"https://time.com/4176566/carly-fiorina-rand-paul-republican-debate/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc76def865dbb363a/698878a8cf40a80127c416b9/fiorina-rand-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc76def865dbb363a/698878a8cf40a80127c416b9/fiorina-rand-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Carly Fiorina speaks as Rand Paul listens during the Republican presidential debate at the Milwaukee Theatre, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, in Milwaukee. 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