Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:37 pm
With their national polling averages dipping below 2.5 percent, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are being pushed off the big stage for the upcoming November 10th Fox Business Debate in Milwaukee. Huckabee and Christie both fell below the 2.5 percent threshold needed to maintain their place in the main event debate.
In the four most recent polls used to determine their standing, Governors Huckabee and Christie both came up short. Each of them averaged 2.25 percent support, after aggregating the most recent Fox News, Quinnipiac, NBC/Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily polls.
While Huckabee and Christie got demoted, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and former New York Governor George Pataki fared even worse. Graham and Pataki couldn’t even score 1 percent in a single recent poll, so they were banished from even participating at the children’s debate table.
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The undercard debate will now feature just Huckabee, Christie, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. The main stage has winnowed down to eight candidates. Donald Trump will still enjoy center stage, and he will be flanked by Ben Carson and Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich and Rand Paul will round out the headline debate.
In the fifteen candidate GOP field, many candidates are struggling to muster any kind of support in the polls. Yet, each of the floundering candidates seem to be swimming in a sea of denial, insisting that they are still relevant, and arguing that they are somehow being treated unfairly.
George Pataki and Lindsey Graham have not been politically viable from the day they announced their candidacies. They should swallow their pride and exit the race to avoid further embarrassment. The same goes for Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum.
Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie had their moment in the limelight, and they failed to impress. They too need to suck it up and find the exit as well. While every candidate has a right to present his or her case for president, there is no reason for candidates who can’t poll better than 3 percent support in their own party, to continue to soldier on just because their egos are unable to concede defeat.
Governor Huckabee and Governor Christie have jumped the shark in the 2016 presidential race. They, along with the rest of the children’s table debaters, should step aside and let the GOP field winnow down to eight candidates.
Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.
