Denied Spot in Main Debate, Rand Paul Opts Out of “Undercard” Event

Denied Spot in Main Debate, Rand Paul Opts Out of “Undercard” EventBy any reasonable criteria Senator Paul has a top tier campaign. He will not let the media decide the tiers of this race and will instead take his message directly to the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa.

Iowa will conduct its first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on February 1, and New Hampshire will hold the nation’s first presidential primary on February 9.

Paul’s campaign has pointed out that a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll released on January 13 indicates that the Kentucky senator is tied for fifth place in Iowa with Jeb Bush, which should have qualified him for inclusion in the main debate. A Bloomberg spokesman told The Hill that the polling organizations scheduled the poll’s release weeks ago, without considering Fox Business’s criteria and cut-off date in that decision.

A Paul campaign spokesman told The Hill on January 13 that the campaign had asked Fox Business to reconsider its decision, but a network representative said it is sticking to its criteria, which stipulated that polling must be “conducted and released” by January 10 at 6 p.m. EST. 

The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll showed Cruz in first place with 25 percent, Trump next with 22 percent, Rubio with 12 percent, Carson with 11 percent, Paul with five percent, Bush with four percent, Christie and Huckabee tied with three percent, John Kasich and Carly Fiorina, tied at two percent, and Rick Santorum with one percent. Of those who polled lower than Paul, candidates Bush, Christie, and Kasich will be on the main stage tonight.