First Republican Party presidential debate, August 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio

Candidate Airtime[1] Polls[2]
Trump 10:32 23.4%
Bush 8:31 12.0%
Walker 5:51 10.2%
Huckabee 6:40 6.6%
Carson 6:23 5.8%
Cruz 6:39 5.4%
Rubio 6:22 5.4%
Paul 5:10 4.8%
Christie 6:10 3.4%
Kasich 6:31 3.2%
Candidate Airtime[3] Polls[2]
Perry 7:06 1.8%
Santorum 7:48 1.4%
Jindal 6:05 1.4%
Fiorina 7:46 1.3%
Graham 6:33 0.7%
Pataki 6:42 0.6%
Gilmore 5:24 0.2%

The Republican Party's first presidential debate ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election was held on August 6, 2015, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, the location of the upcoming 2016 Republican National Convention.

Hosted by Fox News Channel, Facebook, and the Ohio Republican Party, the two-hour debate invited the 10 highest-polling candidates, as measured by the average of the top five national polls selected by Fox. In addition, all other candidates who were "consistently being offered" as choices in national polls were invited to a one-hour debate earlier that same day.[4] (Originally, the non-primetime debate had a minimum requirement that invitees were averaging at least 1% in Fox-recognized national polls,[5] and was to be aired at noon for a total of two hours in duration.) The two-tiered debate hosted by Fox News on the 6th was qualitatively different from the C-SPAN forum held on the 3rd, for at least three reasons: it was a debate rather than a forum, where candidates were allowed to challenge each other, not just speak one at a time sequentially; it was divided into two tiers based on national polling numbers, only a subset of the candidates were on-stage (during each of the two distinct Fox News airtimes); and finally, Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee were participants in the primetime tier, but did not appear at the C-SPAN forum.[6][7]

The candidates in the main debate were Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and John Kasich; the moderators were Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace. Seven candidates who did not qualify were invited to participate in the 5 p.m. forum; these were Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, and George Pataki; the moderators for this debate were Bill Hemmer and Martha McCallum.[8] Because of a rule-change announced[4] by FOX one week before the debate-invitations went out, Graham, Pataki, and Gilmore were allowed to participate at 5 p.m. despite averaging below 1% in the five selected polls.[2] (Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson was excluded from the 5 p.m. tier,[2] along with other relatively-unknown candidates who did not meet the updated invitation-criteria of "consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls as recognized by Fox News.")[4] The five selected polls[2] were conducted by Fox News,[9] Bloomberg,[10] CBS News,[11] Monmouth University,[12] and Quinnipiac University.[13][14]

In the main event, Trump was afforded the most time to speak at the debate by the Fox moderators (at 10 minutes, 32 seconds) followed by Bush (8:31), Huckabee (6:40), Cruz (6:39), Kasich (6:31), Carson (6:23), Rubio (6:22), Christie (6:10), Walker (5:51), and Paul (5:10).[1] The debate itself was viewed by 24 million people at its peak, setting records for the most-watched presidential primary debate ever and the highest-rated non-sports telecast in cable television history.[15][16]

The two different debates received rather different analyses in terms of the performances of the candidates. In the lower tier debate with only 7 candidates, Carly Fiorina was overwhelmingly considered the best debater, while Perry and Jindal were also praised, and Gilmore, Graham, Pataki, and Santorum were criticized.[17] In the primetime debate, frontrunner Donald Trump’s overall performance was criticized as rude and erratic by many pundits, while others said his comments were popular and his criticisms were overdue, including his ctiticism of Bush's description of illegal immigration as an "act of love." Cruz, Rubio, Christie, and Huckabee received praise. Notable conflicts between candidates included Rand Paul vs. Christie over the NSA surveillance program, Paul vs. Trump on the latter's possible third-party run, Paul vs. Trump on healthcare, and Christie vs. Huckabee on the issue of welfare reform. Trump also clashed with two of the moderators – Kelly and Wallace – on the issue of sexism with Kelly, and the issue of illegal immigration with Wallace (specifically, Trump's claims that the Mexican government was deliberately sending criminals into America illegally).[18][19][20]

The lower tier debate was the first and only debate appearance of former Texas governor Rick Perry, who dropped out of the race less than a month later, after he failed to qualify for the second primetime debate and said that this was damaging to his fundraising abilities.[21][22]

References

  1. 1 2 Ostermeier, Eric (August 6, 2015). "Tale of the Tape at the GOP Debate". Smart Politics.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Philip Bump (August 4, 2015). "Perry out, Kasich in: Fox News announces the participants in Thursday night’s debate". Washington Post.
  3. ↑ Taylor, Jessica (August 6, 2015). "In 'Happy Hour Debate,' Candidates Struggle To Break Through". NPR. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "Fox lowers threshold for early debate". Politico. July 30, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  5. ↑ Mike Allen (July 28, 2015). "Fox lowers threshold for early debate". Politico.
  6. ↑ Brian Stelter (August 3, 2015). "Republican forum begins Monday without Donald Trump". CNNMoney.
  7. ↑ "Republican party date: Donald Trump stands front and centre – as it happened". Daily Telegraph. August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Fox News announces candidate line-up for prime-time debate". Fox News. August 5, 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Poll: New high for Trump, new low for Clinton". Fox News. August 3, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Bloomberg Politics National Poll" (PDF). Images.businessweek.com. Retrieved January 14, 2015.NATIONAL: TRUMP WIDENS LEAD
  11. ↑ "CBS News GOP presidential candidates poll". Scribd.
  12. ↑ "NATIONAL: TRUMP WIDENS LEAD" (PDF). Monmouth.edu. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ "TRUMP TOPS REPUBLICAN PACK BY WIDE MARGIN, QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY NATIONAL POLL FINDS; BUT DEMS TRUMP TRUMP IN GENERAL ELECTION" (PDF). Quinnipiac.edu. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Republican debate: Donald Trump still focus of campaign after sprawling fight – as it happened". Daily Telegraph. August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  15. ↑ Joe Flint. "GOP Debate Draws 24 Million Viewers, Making Cable History as Donald Trump Leads the Race". Wall Street Journal blog.
  16. ↑ "24 million watched US presidential debate: Nielsen". Yahoo News.
  17. ↑ Jane C. Timm. "Carly Fiorina emerges as fan favorite after 'happy hour' debate". MSNBC.
  18. ↑ Peters, Jeremy W. (August 6, 2015). "Republican Debate: Analysis and Highlights - The New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  19. ↑ Benjy Sarlin. "Four big takeaways from the first GOP presidential primary debate". MSNBC.
  20. ↑ "GOP debate: Trump, Bush, Cruz, Paul, and Rubio mix it up". CBS News.
  21. ↑ "Rick Perry Drops out of Presidential Race". CNN. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Rick Perry Drops out of 2016 Presidential Race". CBS News. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
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