GOP Presidential Debate Set in Detroit Before Michigan Votes

This story has been updated.

DETROIT, MI – Fox News confirmed in a tweet Thursday that Republican presidential candidates will debate in Detroit on March 3, five days before Michigan holds its presidential primary.

The next Republican presidential debate will be held Saturday at St. Anselm College’s Institute of Politics in Manchester, NH. It will be broadcast on ABC News.

It’s unclear how many Republican candidates will be on the stage in the Detroit debate. On Wednesday, two more Republicans — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — dropped out of the race.

Also Wednesday, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump asked for a do-over of the Iowa Caucuses, where he finished second to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and 1 percentage point ahead of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

In national polls, Trump is far ahead in the Republican field. Trump leads with 33.6 percent in an average of polls on Real Clear Politics, compared with 20.4 percent support for Cruz and 12.2 percent for Rubio. All other candidates polled in the single digits, including Detroit native Dr. Ben Carson, with 8.2 percent.

However, in the first national poll after Trump’s second place finish in Iowa, the billionaire businessman’s support appears to be sliding. The Democratic firm Public Policy Polling said Thursday that Trump is still leading at 25 percent, his lead had fallen to just 4 points. He’s at 25 percent, compared to 21 percent each for Cruz and Rubio, and 11 percent for Carson.

Trump is leading in polls in New Hampshire, too, with 32.8 percent, according to Real Clear Politic’s average, but Rubio, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kaisch are locked in a close battle for second, polling at 11.8 percent, 11.3 percent and 11 percent, respectively, in the average.

On Wednesday, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, who have both lambasted Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s handling of the Flint water catastrophe, agreed to a March 6 debate in Flint, the Democratic National Committee said.

Sanders and Clinton will debate Thursday in New Hampshire in advance of that state’s first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

Sanders and Clinton have agreed to be appear together on the PBS News Hour on Feb.11 and at a March 9 Univision debate. The other two of the new debates will be held April and May, at times and places to be determined.

Clinton barely squeaked past Sanders in the Iowa Caucuses Monday. The two candidates got an almost even share of delegates in the first-in-the-nation test of presidential strength.

» Photos of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio by Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons