Chris Christie and John Kasich are in. Rick Perry is out. And Donald Trump will be center stage.

The jockeying to win a ticket to the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland ended Tuesday afternoon, when Fox News announced the roster of 10 candidates who will be on the stage Thursday evening.


The candidates, drawn from an average of the five most recent national polls, ranked from first to 10th: Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Christie and Kasich.

Perry, the former governor of Texas whose performance in the debates four years ago helped doom his campaign, finished in 11th place, eight-tenths of a point behind Kasich. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore and former New York Gov. George Pataki are farther behind.

The top 10 candidates will debate in a two-hour event at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday. The also-rans will be invited to appear at a separate, one-hour debate, which airs at 5 p.m. Eastern.

Much about the debate criteria remained unclear right up until the 5 p.m. deadline Fox News set back in May. The network hadn’t revealed precisely which polls would be used to calculate its average. And when the network unveiled its criteria, it also raised the possibility of expanding beyond 10 participants in the event of a tie.

Ultimately, the most controversial decision Fox News made in choosing the polls that would be used was dismissing an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted from July 26-30 and using a Quinnipiac University survey conducted July 23-28. The change would not have altered the composition of the top 10, however.

Fox said it dismissed the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll “because it did not meet our criterion that the poll read the names of each Republican candidate in the vote question.” Interviewers instead read the name of each candidate and asked respondents if they had a positive or negative opinion of that candidate. Following that battery of questions, respondents were asked which candidate they would favor, given a choice of 10 candidates (the 10 who made the final cut, except substituting Perry for Kasich), “or would you vote for one of the other candidates that were mentioned in the previous question?”

Fox News’ decision to limit the field has shaped much of the race on the Republican side in recent weeks. Super PACs and other groups supporting Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Christie and Perry spent more than $4 million combined on national cable television advertising in an effort to boost the candidates’ name recognition. The candidates themselves eschewed trips to Iowa and New Hampshire for appearances on Fox News and other television networks. Some candidates sought other ways to earn free media coverage, either with funny, viral Internet videos or by attacking Trump, who has dominated headlines since declaring his candidacy in June.

Kasich timed the declaration of his candidacy almost perfectly, using a post-announcement bounce to vault into the top 10. The Ohio governor staged his announcement rally on July 21, two days before the first of the decisive polls entered the field — the Quinnipiac survey, which showed Kasich at 5 percent, his high-water mark.

By qualifying for the debate, Kasich avoids the embarrassment of being sidelined in his home state. But the 5 p.m. forum will also have a number of accomplished candidates: the former governors of three big states (Texas, Virginia and New York), a sitting senator, a former senator and a former Fortune 500 CEO who is also the field’s only female candidate.

Some of the also-rans accepted the assignment in stride. Santorum was alone in taking aim at Fox News — and the Republican National Committee — for relegating him to the earlier debate.

“The senator will be taking part in the earlier debate; however, the process employed by both Fox News and the RNC is incredibly flawed,” said Santorum spokesman Matthew Beynon. “The idea that they have left out the runner-up for the 2012 nomination, the former … governor of Texas, the governor of Louisiana, the first female Fortune [500] CEO, and the three-term senator from South Carolina due to polling seven months before a single vote is cast is preposterous. While Fox is taking a lot of heat, the RNC deserves as much blame for sanctioning this process. They should not be picking winners and losers. That’s the job of the voters, particularly those in Iowa and New Hampshire who have the role of voting first.”

Jindal will also attend the earlier debate, but his campaign made clear that it is focused on Iowa. “The crowds are growing and the governor is rising in the Iowa polls,” said Jindal spokeswoman Shannon Dirmann. “That’s where our time will be spent.”

Dylan Byers and Katie Glueck contributed to this report.