The 12th Republican presidential primary debate is in the books. Let’s look at who got the most speaking time:
For the fourth Republican debate in a row, Donald Trump got the most speaking time. Trump spoke for 27.4 minutes, although this debate was more even than the past couple debates. Trump spoke for 5.8 more minutes than Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who virtually tied for the second-most amount of speaking. At the two previous debates, Trump got 9 extra minutes of speaking time.
John Kasich got the least amount of speaking time at this debate, less than 19 minutes. Trump spoke nearly 10 minutes longer than Kasich.
With four people in the debate, Trump spoke for nearly one-third of the time, well more than his fair share. Cruz and Rubio had about one-fourth, while Kasich had just over one-fifth.
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. Cruz and Rubio essentially got their fair share, with Kasich not getting enough time.
On the other hand, if you believe candidates should get speaking time proportional to their share in the polls, Trump got a little less than his fair share. He averages 36 percent in national polls but got 31 percent of Thursday’s speaking time. The rest of the candidates had a greater portion of speaking time than they earned in the national polling average.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
