Thursday night, Republicans vying for their party's presidential nomination are debating in Ohio. There are 17 major candidates, meaning the forums will be split in two, with those ranking at the top of polls debating in primetime. Josh Robin filed the following report.

Ten Republican presidential candidates are set for Thursday's major debate.

Center stage is Donald Trump, who leads the national polls that Fox News are using to determine who is in and who is out.

After weeks of offending people, Trump is also guaranteed to be watched closely for what he utters next.

"I think you're going to see a lot of soundbites," said Tom Basile, former executive director of New York State's Republican Party. "I think you're going to see a lot of the same type of rhetoric that we've heard on the campaign trail so far."

While Trump's rivals may lack Trump's particular bluntness, Basile says the nine others need to cut through, hard as it may be with so many on stage at once.

"They have to make news because he has sucked up so oxygen that they haven't been to get on the front page. They haven't been able to get on television as much," Basile said.

Trump's rivals have mostly refrained from attacking him, apart from when he made racially charged comments. This time, they may note that Trump's conservative talk flip-flops from previous positions.

"The debate for the 10 men comes after a smaller debate scheduled for earlier Thursday afternoon that's something of an undercard. The seven others didn't make the cut in polls.

Former Governor George Pataki is one. That a three-term governor is out, but a reality TV star is in, has Republican party officials defending using polls as their sole criteria.

"If you don't use some degree of polling, then it becomes completely subjective," said Sean Spicer, communications director with the Republican National Committee. "And the last thing people want, frankly, is people in Washington and people at the RNC deciding who gets in based on the fact that they've held some kind of elective office."

Meanwhile, two Republicans running for office had some embarassing news Wednesday. A top aide to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was indicted Wednesday on an alleged conspiracy to pay for an endorsement for the senator's father's 2012 campaign, and the Trump campaign reportedly cut ties to another supporter for racially charged Facebook posts.