The first Republican presidential primary debate is in the books. Let’s take a look at who got the most speaking time:
Donald Trump spoke for more than twice as long as Rand Paul did. Trump spoke for almost 11 minutes in the two-hour debate. Paul spoke for a little more than five minutes. The average was about seven minutes per candidate.
Only Trump and Jeb Bush received more than their fair share of speaking time, if you believe each candidate should have had equal time.
On the other hand, if you think higher-polling candidates should have gotten more speaking time, Donald Trump didn’t speak enough, nor did Scott Walker. Bush spoke for about 12.5 percent of the debate, about equal to his share of support in the polls. Every other candidate’s portion of speaking time was larger than his share of support.
Keep in mind that this is how long each candidate spoke for. It’s possible each candidate was asked a similar number of questions but gave answers of differing lengths.
