Election 2016: The First GOP Debate
While the media’s spotlight will no doubt shine brightest on current frontrunner Donald Trump, the other nine career politicians will surely be doing all they can to seize upon this opportunity to stand out.
The full slate of Republican candidates (who you can see in their entirety here, alongside their Democrat counterparts) will not be participating in tonight’s debate, merely the top 10 according to what Fox has determined to be the major national polls. This results in the somewhat surprising exclusion of former Texas Governor Rick Perry, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina, currently the only Republican woman running.
While The Donald comes into this evening’s debate as the frontrunner, he is also the one with the most pressure on him. Here he must elevate himself from charismatic sideshow to actual candidate, or perhaps he’ll just keep doing what he’s been doing. Whatever your opinion on him, it has gotten him this far.
Anyway, nobody comes to PeekYou for political opinion, but instead to harness and utilize the immense power of the Web to research and better inform their own opinions. To that end, we provide links to CNN and Fox, where you can read varied takes on what to watch for this evening.
Below is a chart of the 10 participants in tonight’s debate, ranked according to their respective PeekScores; our metric for measuring an individual’s prominence, presence, and influence online. Clicking on the items on the below list will lead you the corresponding candidate’s PeekYou profile, from where you can further investigate his life, career, and campaign, via links to social pages, campaign sites, home pages, articles, interviews, videos, photos, and much more.
Quick Disclaimer: As is probably the case in most workplaces throughout the country, the political inclinations of the PeekYou staff run the gamut. These rankings are entirely objective and impartial.
| Rank | Picture | Name | Résumé | PeekScore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Donald Trump | Real estate mogul and TV personality | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 2 |  |
Scott Walker | Governor of Wisconsin | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 3 |  |
Chris Christie | Governor of New Jersey | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 4 |  |
Rand Paul | Senator from Kentucky | 9.89 / 10.00 |
| 5 |  |
Ted Cruz | Senator from Texas | 9.76 / 10.00 |
| 6 |  |
Jeb Bush | Former Governor of Florida | 9.10 / 10.00 |
| 7 |  |
Marco Rubio | Senator from Florida | 9.08 / 10.00 |
| 8 |  |
Mike Huckabee | Former Governor of Arkansas | 9.01 / 10.00 |
| 9 |  |
Ben Carson | Retired, famous neurosurgeon | 8.73 / 10.00 |
| 10 |  |
John Kasich | Governor of Ohio | 7.02 / 10.00 |