Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is arguing that a new poll showing him in fifth place in Iowa should be added to the surveys used to determine the lineup of Thursday’s prime-time GOP presidential debate hosted by Fox Business Network.
“We’re in fifth by ourselves in front of three people that they’re going to put in the debate,” Mr. Paul said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “This one is within their guidelines, within their framework, and we are telling them today they should be counting it.”
To qualify for the main stage at Thursday’s debate in South Carolina, candidates had to place in the top six nationally or in the top five in Iowa or New Hampshire in polls recognized by Fox News that were conducted and released before Monday at 6 p.m.
The Bloomberg/Des Moines Register survey Mr. Paul referred to was conducted Thursday through Sunday but was released Wednesday morning.
Mr. Paul was at 5 percent in the poll, behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 25 percent, businessman Donald Trump at 22 percent, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at 12 percent, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 11 percent.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was at 4 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee were at 3 percent apiece, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina were at 2 percent each, and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was at 1 percent.
“We will be letting them know today that they should be counting the Des Moines Register poll and seeing if they want to reassess or maybe if there has been an error in the calculations,” Mr. Paul said. “See, this new poll was not included, but it does fall within the deadline.”
Fox Business Network announced Monday that Mr. Trump, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Carson, Mr. Christie, Mr. Bush and Mr. Kasich qualified for the 9 p.m. eastern time debate stage, and that Mr. Paul, Mrs. Fiorina, Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Santorum qualified for the earlier, “undercard” debate.
A Fox Business Network spokesperson said Wednesday that the qualification requirements have been known since last month.
“We announced the criteria in December and clearly stated the polling needed to be conducted and released by Monday, Jan. 11 at 6 p.m. ET,” the spokesperson said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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