Republican Presidential Candidates Set For Debate Thursday

Donald Trump and rivals Jeb Bush and Scott Walker will face off in a televised debate tonight, taking the stage in Cleveland along with seven other Republican hopefuls who were selected by debate organizer Fox News.

The main debate will air at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News; seven other Republican candidates, including Lindsey Graham and Bobby Jindal, will take part in a prelude event at 5 p.m. ET. You can follow events at NPR's It's All Politics blog, which will be hosting a live chat.

Fox News is co-sponsoring tonight's debate with Facebook. The tech company helped determine the issues that are driving conversations in social media — and it offered a way for people to submit their own questions to the candidates.

As It's All Politics' Amita Kelly notes, "The candidates themselves also took a stab at writing some questions for the debate."

The field for the main debate was chosen by averaging five recent polls, Fox News says. For its GOP primary debate next month, CNN is also reportedly planning to use a two-tier system rather than try to fit all 17 major candidates on one stage.