The 10th Republican presidential primary debate is in the books. Let’s take a look at who got the most speaking time.
For the second debate in a row, Donald Trump got the most speaking time at a Republican debate. Trump spoke for nearly 30 minutes, 10 more minutes any other candidate. Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Marco Rubio all spoke between 18 and 20 minutes. Carson trailed well behind, speaking for only 10 minutes. It was the fifth debate in a row in which Carson spoke least.
With five people in the debate, Trump spoke for nearly one-third of the time. Cruz, Kasich and Rubio each had about one-fifth, while Carson only spoke for one-tenth. Trump spoke three times longer than Carson.
Trump was the only candidate who spoke for more than his fair share of speaking time, if you believe each candidate should have had equal time.
On the other hand, if you believe higher-polling candidates should get more speaking time, then Trump, Cruz and Rubio each got about the right amount of speaking time. For example, in a national average of polls, Trump gets 33 percent support. Thursday night, Trump spoke for 31 percent of the debate.
Kasich had the largest gap between his portion of speaking time and poll support. He spoke for 19 percent of the debate but gets only 10 percent support in the polls.
Topics Behind the Questions in Tenth Republican Debate InsideGov
In terms of topics, the hot topic was immigration. About one-fourth of the debate was about immigration. Roughly 17 percent was spent on the candidates’ personal records. Taxes and the economy got less than one-tenth of the debate.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
