Sunshine State News Live-Blogging Tonight's GOP Debate on National Security

Expectations are high for Newt Gingrich Tuesday night as GOP presidential candidates square off for a televised debate on national security.

Sunshine State News will live-blog the event, which runs 8-10 p.m. from DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

Gingrich, who has surged past Mitt Romney in some polls, has extensive national-security experience, with his seat on the Council on Foreign Relations and his two decades in Congress in the 1980s and 1990s.

But Michele Bachmann, who currently sits on the House Intelligence Committee, has taken a hard line on national-security issues, urging her rivals to "man up" to meet the rising threat posed by global terrorism and porous U.S. borders.

Tonight's debate -- the 11th major showdown -- will be aired on CNN and is co-sponsored by the conservative Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.