Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee have been relegated to the preliminary debate next week, while Lindsey Graham and George Pataki will not be invited at all to the event, Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal announced Thursday.
The news organizations said that Tuesday's prime time debate in Milwaukee will have only eight candidates who had high enough poll numbers: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich and Rand Paul.
Fox Business Network said that it restricted the 9 p.m. ET prime debate to candidates that averaged 2.5% or higher in the four most recent national polls.
