Next week’s Republican presidential debate will have a familiar look, as 10 top tier candidates will vie in the main event, sponsor CNBC said Wednesday.
Donald Trump, the front-runner in national polls, and Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who’s surged into second, will be joined by much the same group that faced off in the last debate Sept. 16: Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor; Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; former business executive Carly Fiorina; Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas; John Kasich, governor of Ohio and Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Missing is Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, who dropped out last month. Candidates need an average of 2.5 percent in recent polls to qualify.
An earlier debate, featuring other candidates who got at least 1 percent in a single poll, will include Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana; Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania; George Pataki, former governor of New York and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Jim Gilmore, former governor of Virginia, did not qualify.
The debate, scheduled to last two hours from Boulder, Colorado, is expected to focus heavily on economics. The last debate went more than three hours, but Trump and Carson insisted this event not last longer than two hours.
David Lightman: 202-383-6101, @lightmandavid