Washington (CNN)-The stage is set for the CNN Reagan Library Debate next week in California, with Carly Fiorina joining 10 other leading Republican presidential candidates at 8 p.m. ET.
Thursday marked the close of the two-month window for determining eligibility based on averages of national polls. The results were based on 14 polls including interviews with more than 6,000 potential Republican primary voters. The top 10 candidates overall — plus Fiorina, whose average support places her within the top 10 in polls conducted after the first debate held August 6 — have all qualified for the 8:00 p.m. debate next Wednesday in Simi Valley. The remaining five candidates will appear during an earlier debate beginning at 6:00 p.m.
The overall rankings based on an average of all qualifying polls for the 16 candidates who met the requirements for participation are:
1) Donald Trump: 23.929
2) Jeb Bush: 11.500
3) Scott Walker: 9.429
4) Ben Carson: 8.929
5) Ted Cruz: 6.286
6) Marco Rubio: 5.643
7) Mike Huckabee: 5.571
8) Rand Paul: 4.714
9) John Kasich: 3.214
10) Chris Christie: 3.143
11) Carly Fiorina: 2.229
12) Rick Perry: 1.814
13) Rick Santorum: 1.214
14) Bobby Jindal: 1.057
15) George Pataki: 0.529
16) Lindsey Graham: 0.471
The rules for inclusion were amended late last month so that any candidate who made the top 10 in an average of polls conducted after the Fox News/Facebook debate held on August 6 would also be included in the later debate. Fiorina is the only candidate to move from the bottom six to the top 10 in that post-debate average. Here are the averages for qualifying polls conducted after the August 6 debate and released by September 10:
1) Donald Trump: 27.8
2) Ben Carson: 14.0
3) Jeb Bush: 9.2
4) Ted Cruz: 7.4
5) Scott Walker: 5.6
6) Marco Rubio: 5.4
T-7) Carly Fiorina: 4.4
T-7) Mike Huckabee: 4.4
9) Rand Paul: 3.2
10) John Kasich: 3.6
11) Chris Christie: 2.8
12) Rick Perry: 1.08
13) Rick Santorum: 0.8
14) Bobby Jindal: 0.56
15) George Pataki: 0.44
16) Lindsey Graham: 0.28
Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, who participated in the August 6 debate, did not meet the criteria for inclusion in next Wednesday’s debate. Candidates were required to average 1% support in any three polls released during the two-month window. Out of the 14 polls released during that time, Gilmore had 1% support in only one poll.
Source: Carly Fiorina will appear in top-tier CNN Reagan Library debate – CNNPolitics.com
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