Updated Aug. 5: On Thursday, the nation's GOP candidates will square off in the nation's first Republican debate of 2015.
The event is slated for 9 p.m. ET on FOX News. It will feature the following top 10 candidates for the GOP nomination:
Donald Trump
Jeb Bush
Scott Walker
Ben Carson
Mike Huckabee
Ted Cruz
Rand Paul
Marco Rubio
Chris Christie
John Kasich
Here's what else we know about 2015's first Republican debate...
Setting the Stage for the First Republican Debate of 2015
Seventeen presidential hopefuls threw their hat into the ring on the GOP side - but only the aforementioned top 10 will participate. Those not participating in the primetime debate are:
Rick Santorum
Bobby Jindal
Carly Fiorina
Lindsey Graham
George Pataki
Jim Gilmore
Rick Perry
The results of five well-respected polls selected at the discretion of FOX News were used to determine which candidates made the cut. Those five polls were conducted by Bloomberg, CBS News, FOX News, Monmouth University, and Quinnipiac University.
All but three of the 17 major GOP candidates participated in a pre-national debate "practice round" that took place in New Hampshire Monday night (Aug. 3). According to S. News that day, the candidates appeared on stage one at a time and addressed several controversial issues such as abortion, illegal immigration, and climate control.
The seven bottom-tier candidates will have the opportunity to debate amongst each other on Thursday, but much earlier in the evening (5 p.m., FOX News) than the coveted prime time slot.
Stay tuned to Money Morning for coverage of the 2016 presidential election. You can follow us on Twitter @moneymorning or like us on Facebook.
He Ain't Poor, He's My Brother: Five Republican candidates recently attended the Koch brothers' conference to vie for the kind of funding that could alter the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Here a look at how these presidential hopefuls fared...
