The sixth Republican presidential primary debate is in the books. Let’s take a look at who got the most speaking time:
For the third straight debate, Ted Cruz got the most speaking time with nearly 18 minutes. In past debates, Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina had the most speaking time.
Cruz got 18 percent of the total speaking time. Trump came in second with about 17 minutes of time. Rubio was on the same tier, with 16.5 minutes. That was followed by a tier of Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich, who each had about 12.5 minutes. Ben Carson spoke for 8.5 minutes, the least of anyone and well below the 14 minute average.
Trump, Cruz and Rubio all spoke for more than their fair share of time, if you believe each candidate should have had equal time.
On the other hand, if you think higher-polling candidates should get more speaking time, Trump did not speak enough. He averages 36 percent in recent national polls but got less than 18 percent of the speaking time.
Besides Trump, every other candidate’s portion of speaking time was close to or larger than his share of support. Kasich had the largest gap between speaking portion and polls, speaking for 12.6 percent of the debate but earning only 2 percent in the polls.
Obama served as a punching bag at the debate, getting mentioned on 70 occasions. That ranged from no mentions from Kasich to 22 from Christie. Despite being their likely general election opponent, Hillary Clinton was mentioned only 28 occasions, and not once by Kasich or Trump.
Ted Cruz referenced Donald Trump 12 times, with the moderators mentioning Trump four times and Trump referencing himself once.
Gun control was a big issue at this debate since Obama announced new executive action last week. Rubio mentioned the word “guns” 14 times, while the moderators mentioned it on 13 occasions.
The Islamic State and jihadists were mentioned nearly as often as guns. Rubio spoke of ISIS or jihadists most often, with 12 references.
Jobs were also an important issue, with 29 mentions. Eleven of those mentions came from Kasich, while Carson never talked about jobs.
With Lindsey Graham and George Pataki dropping out since the last debate, the makeup of the undercard debate was somewhat different. Carly Fiorina appeared in the undercard for the first time since the first GOP debate on Aug. 6.
Speaking time was close to equal, with less than one minute separating the candidates with the most and least time. Contrast that with the Sept. 17 undercard debate, where Lindsey Graham spoke for almost 10 more minutes more than George Pataki.
It helped that the combined speaking time was quote short. At the Dec. 15 debate, the four undercard candidates had an hour and eight minutes to speak. Thursday night, the three candidates had only 37 minutes combined.
Previous undercard debates have had so few candidates get so much speaking time compared to the main debates that an undercard candidate could actually speak longer than a main candidate. Tonight, with a main debate twice as long as the undercard, there was no such problem.
Coming just two days after his final State of the Union address, Obama was the most frequently referenced topic of the buzzwords we tracked. He was mentioned 31 times, 12 by Huckabee. Huckabee also mentioned guns most often, with nine of the 16 references.
Despite leading national GOP polls, Donald Trump was mentioned only once in the undercard debate, by Carly Fiorina. Fiorina also had more than half of Hillary Clinton’s mentions at the undercard.
Jobs was the second most common topic in the undercard, with 25 mentions to Obama’s 31. Santorum brought it up most often, with 11 mentions.
Fiorina was the only candidate to mention all six of the buzzwords we tracked, while Santorum mentioned only four.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
