Stuart Varney, Dana Perino to moderate second GOP debate on Fox Business

The moderators for next month’s Republican presidential primary debate have been set.

Fox hosts Stuart Varney and Dana Perino, as well as Univision’s Ilia Calderón, will preside over the Sept. 27 event, which will be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. The debate, the second of the GOP primary, will be hosted by Fox Business and will also air in Spanish exclusively on Univision.

“We are very proud to have Stuart Varney and Dana Perino co-moderating the second debate with Univision to provide Americans with a comprehensive view of the qualifying candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president,” Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, said in announcing the decision Wednesday.

Fox hosted the first Republican primary debate last week. Former President Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, skipped the event, citing his large lead in most national polls and what he has described as a “hostile” relationship with Fox leadership.

Trump has signaled he does not intend to participate in any of the GOP primary debates, which are slated to occur once a month ahead of the Republican convention next summer.

Varney and Perino are both Fox veterans who have become staples of the channel’s programming in recent years.

After a stint in George W. Bush’s White House, Perino joined Fox 14 years ago and currently hosts its morning news program “America’s Newsroom” with co-anchor Bill Hemmer.

Varney, a member of Fox Business’s original staff, serves primarily as a conservative political and financial analyst.

Calderón is currently co-anchor of Univision’s flagship weekday evening newscast and moderated the final primary debate between Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in March 2020.

Updated: 1:13 p.m.