January 9, 2016 – Columbia, South Carolina The Kemp Forum was held in the
Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center by the
Jack Kemp Foundation. Bush, Carson, Christie, Fiorina, Huckabee, Kasich, and Rubio attended. The forum was moderated by
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senator
Tim Scott.
January 14, 2016 – North Charleston, South Carolina On December 8, 2015, it was announced that
Fox Business Network would host an additional debate two days after the
State of the Union address. The debate was held in the
North Charleston Coliseum in
North Charleston, South Carolina. The anchor and managing editor of Business News,
Neil Cavuto, and anchor and global markets editor,
Maria Bartiromo, reprised their roles as moderators for the
prime-time debate, which began at 9 p.m. EST. The earlier debate, which started at 6 p.m. EST, was again moderated by anchors
Trish Regan and
Sandra Smith. On December 22, 2015, Fox Business Network announced that in order to qualify for the prime-time debate, candidates had to either: place in the top six nationally, based on an average of the five most recent national polls recognized by FOX News; place in the top five in Iowa, based on an average of the five most recent Iowa state polls recognized by FOX News; or place in the top five in New Hampshire, based on an average of the five most recent New Hampshire state polls recognized by FOX News. In order to qualify for the first debate, candidates must have registered at least one percent in one of the five most recent national polls. On January 11, 2016, seven candidates were revealed to have been invited to the prime-time debate:
Jeb Bush,
Ben Carson,
Chris Christie,
Ted Cruz,
John Kasich,
Marco Rubio, and
Donald Trump. The participants were introduced in order of their poll rankings at the debate.
Carly Fiorina,
Mike Huckabee, and
Rick Santorum participated in the undercard debate.
Rand Paul was also invited to the undercard debate, but said, "I won't participate in anything that's not first tier because we have a first tier campaign." The candidates were introduced in order of their poll rankings. The first question was to assess the economy. The next questions asked Fiorina about the role of the US in the world, Santorum about the Iran deal, and Huckabee about the solution to Afghanistan's problems.
February 13, 2016 – Greenville, South Carolina The ninth debate, and second debate in the month of February, was held in another early primary state of South Carolina, and aired on CBS News. The debate was moderated by
John Dickerson in the
Peace Center, began at 9 p.m. ET and lasted for 90 minutes. == Endorsements ==