As the top 10 GOP presidential candidates prepare for Thursday night's first debate,
The Washington Post reports that those toward the fringes of the stage may only get as few as five minutes in the spotlight.
"Some of the 10 candidates' speaking times may be so minuscule that it’ll be as if they weren’t even there at all," Alan Schroeder, a debate expert and journalism professor at Northeastern University, said, according to
CBS News.
The 10 candidates, listed by their ranking in the recent national polls that won them a spot on Thursday night's stage, are: billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Trump, as the front-runner, will be at the center, with Bush and Walker flanking him.
The Post "did a little debate arithmetic" with Schroeder to determine how much time each might get.
According to "simple math" — in a two-hour debate featuring 10 candidates — the Post says that moderators Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace will likely focus their questions on the top three or four contenders.
"We can assume those candidates will get between 10 and 12 minutes of talking time each," Schroeder said, according to the Post.
As for the others, said the Post, "Our best guesstimate is seven to nine minutes each, with those on the edges of the stage getting only about five or six minutes."
With the field of presidential contenders being the largest in modern memory, Steve Duprey, New Hampshire's representative to the Republican National Committee who assisted in the debate plan, said, "there's no perfect solution" as to how to craft the debate.
"We never envisioned we'd have 17 major candidates."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.