CNN has announced the candidates that will be participating in its upcoming September 12 GOP debate to be held in Tampa, Florida.
Dubbed “The Tea Party Republican Debate” due to the Tea Party Express being a co-sponsor, the debate participants will include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, businessman Herman Cain, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. CNN also extended invitations to Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (neither of whom have said they will run) and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race earlier this year.
CNN crafted objective criteria – modeled after criteria the network used at the June debate – to determine who would be eligible to participate in the Sept. 12th debate. Participants needed to achieve a minimum 2 percent threshold in an average of national primary polls to be invited to the debate.