Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee Bumped From Main GOP Debate

They'll be at the kids table debate with Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee have failed to qualify for next week's main Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal.

This is the first time in the election cycle that candidates have been bumped from the main debate to the undercard forum.

In order to qualify for the main debate, candidates needed to poll at an average of 2.5 percent or higher in the four most recent national surveys. Christie and Huckabee did not meet that threshold, and will instead join Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum in an earlier forum.

Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich and Rand Paul will all participate in the prime time debate.

Lindsey Graham, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore failed to qualify for either debate.

Christie said he wouldn't be discouraged by appearing in the early debate, tweeting a HuffPost video of the governor discussing drug addiction at a New Hampshire town hall:

Huckabee also responded to the news on Twitter:

The Fox Business/WSJ debate will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 9 p.m. ET. Fox Business is unbundling for the debate, allowing cable and satellite companies to offer the program to all their subscribers.

Also on HuffPost:

Moments From The CNBC Republican Debate

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