It’s Official: These 10 GOP Presidential Hopefuls Made The Debate Cut

Though we're a little more than a year away from actually electing a new president, campaigns on both sides of the aisle have been waged — and won. This evening, Fox News officially announced which 10 Republican hopefuls landed the coveted spots on the network's first intra-party debate. From the looks of the list, it's going to get interesting: Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul all made the cut. Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, Rick Perry, and Jim Gilmore all got left in the dust. These picks weren't exactly a surprise: For one thing, Trump has taken the lion's share of the lead in the polls. Despite the fact that he's prepared audiences for a less-than-incredible debate performance, it's been overall pretty clear that he would make it onto the podium. Other obvious front-runners for this first round included Bush and Walker — who both rank highly within the base, but neither of whom spoke especially eloquently at the First Voters Forum in New Hampshire on Monday evening. Huckabee, Carson, and Cruz were neck-and-neck as of this afternoon, making their entry into the Fox debate fairly predictable. Some hopefuls, however, always fell into wild-card territory: Fiorina, Graham, and Gilmore were never exactly competitive candidates. Thursday is likely to bring a whole new set of surprises and insights about who will ultimately rise to the top of the GOP ticket. In the meantime, all we can do is wait — and speculate.