CLEVELAND (AP) — The Latest on the first Republican debate of the 2016 campaign for president:

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5:01 p.m.

And the first debate question of the 2016 campaign goes to ... Rick Perry.

The former Texas governor was asked why voters should choose him as the party's nominee at Thursday's pre-debate forum.

Taking part are the seven lower-polling candidates who didn't make the cut for the prime-time debate.

The main event starts at 9 p.m. with 10 candidates, selected based on their rank in five recent national polls.

Perry said being the powerful individual in the world requires an extraordinary amount of work, and said he's ready for the job four years after his first run for president.

There were only a few people in the seats at Quicken Loans Arena to watch the early debate, which includes Perry and three other current or former governors, a sitting senator from a crucial early-voting state, a former senator and the GOP's only female White House candidate.

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4:35 p.m.

The National Rifle Association will air its first political ad of the 2016 campaign during Thursday night's Republican presidential debate.

Their target: Gun control advocate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The 30-second spot suggests that the billionaire media mogul is either running for president or wants to pick the next one. The ad says his agenda will be: "Outlaw your snack foods. Drive up your electric bill. Dismantle your gun rights."

Bloomberg has been a major financier of gun control advocates in recent years, including spending millions backing candidates who favor curbing gun rights.

The NRA has spent millions doing the opposite.

The NRA said it will spend around $1 million on the ad, which will run on Fox News, CNN and on local television in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. All three are home to early presidential primaries or caucuses.

The ad will also appear digitally in those states and South Carolina, another early primary state.

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3:25 p.m.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says the indictment of a longtime political aide to his family is "a little bit of a distraction" as he heads into the first Republican debate of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Federal prosecutors this week unsealed charges against Jesse Benton and two others who worked for Rand Paul's father during then-Rep. Ron Paul's 2012 campaign for president.

They are accused of conspiring to buy the support of an Iowa state senator just before that year's Iowa caucuses.

Rand Paul tells WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that it's "suspicious that President Obama's administration is bringing this forward in the middle of a presidential debate."

Benton has temporarily stepped down from his role at a super PAC supporting Rand Paul's White House bid.

He says in an email to The Associated Press that he "will return soon when I am exonerated."

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3 p.m.

President Barack Obama expects a lot of the talk at the first presidential debate of the 2016 Republican primary campaign will be about him.

But he's not clearing his schedule to watch all of Thursday night's event in Cleveland.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says Obama is interested in the arguments that will be made and will be following the news coverage of the debate.

Earnest predicts most of the debate will be about Obama and his use of his influence. But the White House isn't preparing responses they can send out right away to criticism leveled by the GOP candidates.

On the Republican side, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will be watching the two-hour debate.

McConnell says it "should be a lot of fun."

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1:45 p.m.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has some advice for the Republican presidential candidates getting ready for their first debate: Be respectful and embrace solutions.

Haley tells a summer meeting of the Republican National Committee on Thursday that her state is still healing from the horror of June's racially motivated massacre at an African-American church.

Haley says that people coming together in the wake of the shooting led to the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capital in Columbia.

The second-term Republican governor says if that kind of consensus can happen in South Carolina, "just think of what we can do across this country."

She spoke at a GOP lunch just blocks from the site of Thursday night's debate in Cleveland.

She says she'll be watching for substance and details at the debate. Her message for the candidates: "Tell me how you're going to solve our problems."

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12:15 p.m.

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker are giving him a rousing send-off as the Wisconsin governor heads to Ohio for the first debate of the 2016 campaign.

Cheers of "Go get 'em, Scott!" rang out from a crowd Thursday at the Wisconsin State Fair, where Walker visited before leaving for Cleveland.

Walker, looking relaxed in a blue fair polo shirt, jeans and sneakers, said at the opening ceremony he couldn't miss the first day of an annual event he loves.

He also noted that Abraham Lincoln visited the Wisconsin State Fair in 1859, the year before he was elected president.

Walker says he'll be back at the fair next week to participate in a meat auction, livestock auction and to take his two nieces on the potato-sack slide.

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11: 15 a.m.

It's a big day for Republicans, but Democrats are making some debate news of their own.

The Democratic National Committee released plans for its presidential debates on Thursday, announcing the first of six will be held Oct. 13 in Nevada.

Four debates are planned for early primary states in advance of the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.

That decision has already prompted complaints from candidates trying to challenge front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley says "it would be very foolish for the DNC and bad for our party, bad for our prospects, for us to be the party that limits debates."

Dates for the final two gatherings are not yet set. But the committee says they will be in February or March.