Rand Paul about to get booted from main GOP debate

By Eddie Scarry, Eddie Scarry

Published December 20, 2015

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Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, whose campaign has struggled for months to gain any traction, is set to suffer another blow.

In all likelihood, Paul will be relegated to the so-called "undercard" table at next week's GOP debate, hosted Dec. 15 by CNN.

CNN's criteria allows for three ways for candidates to make it into the primetime debate, but Paul is unlikely to qualify in any of those three ways. Candidates can either poll nationally at 3.5 percent, based on an average of recognized polls from Oct. 29-Dec. 13, they can poll at 4 percent in Iowa, or at 4 percent in New Hampshire.