Tonight's Republican Presidential Debate 2016 takes place from Manchester, New Hampshire and has a scheduled start time of 8 p.m. ET. The latest GOP Debate will broadcast live on TV on the ABC network, or online through free live stream via the link below.
All eyes are on how Donald Trump will tackle tonight's debate, after he opted out of the last debate on Fox News, and subsequently went on to lose the Iowa caucuses. This time Trump is sure to be front and center and with a big lead in the New Hampshire polls it will be interesting to see how aggressive he will come out and how much he feels he needs to push things to get the result he needs to get his campaign back on track.
Trump will of course be joined by Iowa winner, Ted Cruz, who is hoping to surprise political polling analysts once again.
Marco Rubio surged in Iowa and came in a strong third place, just marginally behind favorite Donald Trump, and he is quickly emerging as a serious threat to get the GOP nomination.
Ben Carson has had a torrid few months and has fallen in the polls badly. In Iowa he finished a weak fourth, and if he has another lukewarm showing tonight in New Hampshire some are questioning whether he will be able to mount a comeback and be a serious challenger to the top three of Trump, Rubio and Cruz.
Others in attendance tonight will be Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich, and all of those will be desperate to make an impact showing tonight to get a boost in the polls for next week's New Hampshire primary. All three of them are considered to be "establishment candidates", in competition with Rubio for the votes from the core of the party. However, after Rubio's showing in Iowa, many are wondering whether the establishment voters will start to shift behind Rubio as their frontrunner, leaving Bush, Christie and Kasich increasingly falling behind, and only a matter of time until they are left with no option but to drop out of the race.
If Rubio does succeed tonight and in the primary next week then some expect at least one of those three contenders to drop out in the coming weeks.
For the first time there will be no undercard debate among the Republicans tonight, as the GOP field has shrunken down in recent weeks. However, that means Carly Fiorina and Virginia governor Jim Gilmore will be left out alone among the remaining candidates as she missed the ABC polling cutoff to qualify for tonight's debate. There were strong calls for ABC to invite Fiorina to join tonight's debate as she had a better showing in Iowa than some of the candidates appearing tonight, however, the network has confirmed that it is making no changes to its scheduled plans in light of Iowa's results, and that means Fiorina will miss out.
Tonight's Republican Presidential Debate 2016 has a scheduled start time of 8 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the ABC network or online through free live stream by clicking here.
