Nine Republican presidential candidates have qualified for Tuesday night's debate in Las Vegas, CNN announced Sunday. CNN’s Jake Tapper has named which of the GOP hopefuls would make the main stage: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul.
It was unclear as to whether or not Kentucky Senator Rand Paul would make the stage with his national polling numbers hovering around the one percent mark. However, the network determined that Paul would be allowed to participate in the main debate because Paul was "showing viability" by polling at five percent in a Fox News Iowa poll released Sunday morning, according to TIME.
CNN had plans to announce the debate line-up during the State of the Union at 9 a.m. but had delayed the call until the show's re-run at noon, perhaps to allow for the Sunday morning poll to be released, Mediaite pointed out. Paul's campaign team had lobbied CNN to allow him on the stage, NBC News reported.
CNN made their decision based on a few criteria. The top five candidates qualified as a result of their standing in national polls, according to Politico. Kasich, Fiorina and Christie made the stage because of their poll numbers in New Hampshire. Christie returns to the main stage after being relegated to the undercard debate the last time. Candidates qualified if they achieved an average of 3.5 percent in national polls conducted since late October, or four percent in either Iowa or New Hampshire.
Those in the undercard debate in Las Vegas include George Pataki, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham.
The undercard debate will air on Tuesday at 6 p.m., and the main debate will take place at 9 p.m.
Watch the video to see how the candidates will be positioned on the stage:
