Paul Shocks Pundits, Joins Field of Eight Candidates in Primetime

by Josh Guckert

On Sunday afternoon, Jake Tapper of CNN’s State of the Union announced the lineups for CNN’s two debates on Tuesday. Most notably, Rand Paul will join eight others on the main stage at 8:30 p.m. This comes after several outlets had suggested Paul would be relegated to the secondary debate, with several other news organizations stating that such a fall could result in Paul’s departure from the race.

Helping Paul’s case, this morning FOX News released an Iowa poll with Paul in a fifth-place tie with 5%. The Paul campaign released a statement Saturday, suggesting that CNN give their campaign the same benefit of the doubt as they did for Carly Fiorina in the last CNN debate, when the criteria was changed to reflect her surge midway through the polling window.