Rand Paul is still running for president.
Rules call for only seven candidates to appear in the main event, and neither Paul nor Ms. Fiorina made the cut.
Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich did qualify, the latter due to his strength in New Hampshire state polling.
Paul's decision to take his libertarianism home and not continue to play the GOP game did elicit a fair amount of social media snark, given that he's fallen under 3 percent in national polls.
"Uh, Rand?
Your campaign is not first-tier, but you're participating in that," wrote Laura Clawson in a post on Daily Kos .
Andrew Kaczynski tweeted out a poll question: "Better Rand Paul nickname while he complains about debate?"
The action on Thursday will be at the center, with Mr. Trump and Senator Cruz competing for front-runner status and Mr. Bush, Senator Rubio, and Governors Christie and Kasich struggling to emerge as a consensus establishment alternative.
