Fox debate: Trump, Bush, Walker - plus 7 more

With 23 percent support, Donald Trump will take center stage in Thursday's debate, which will include presidential scion and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (13 percent) and union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (10.6 percent).

The top three Republicans will be joined by the former Arkansas preacher-governor Mike Huckabee and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, each of whom has 6.6 percent of party support.

Clustered with 5-6 percent support, the senators Marco Rubio (Florida), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) will join the top five candidates. Scandal-plagued New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (3.4 percent) and Ohio's anti-labor executive, John Kasich (2.8 percent), also made the cut, based on an average of recent polls.

Trump, a real-estate tycoon-cum-Republican frontrunner, has energized the party. He has little regard for fellow candidates, calling Bush "weak" and second-tier contender Senator Lindsey Graham an "idiot," and saying former Texas Governor Rick Perry wears glasses "so people will think he's smart" - in a single campaign speech. Trump charged recently that Walker didn't stand a chance because his state was a "mess" with a "massive deficit."

Though he lacks popular support Bush has commercial backing, leading the pack in financial contributions with about $114 million (105 million euros) - still hardly a drop in the bucket compared to Trump's personal billions.

'Back on track'

Fox limited participants to the 10 candidates of 17 announced who performed best in an average of recent polls by Bloomberg, CBS News, Fox News, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University. Some Republicans have criticized the party-friendly broadcaster for not factoring in the margin of error, which left many single-digit candidates statistically tied. Senator Graham, Governor Perry, former Senator Rick Santorum, former HP executive Carly Fiorina, former New York Governor George Pataki, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will take part in a forum held ahead of the debate.

"I look forward to answering questions on Thursday in Cleveland," Fiorina said in a statement.

Perry wrote on Twitter that he looked forward to the forum "for what will be a serious exchange of ideas and positive solutions to get America back on track."

Graham, who has branded Trump a "jackass," said the tycoon might make more sense to debate viewers if they had had a few drinks.

Forty-seven percent of voters who described themselves as "consistently conservative" said they primarily got their political news from Fox, according to a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center.

mkg/cmk (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)