When asked whether the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act was “here to stay,” Pence started off by calling for a federal expedited death penalty for mass shooters. When pressed again by the moderator, he turned the question of the ACA into one about Trump, suggesting that questions about health care policy should be a decision by Congress and the executive branch, while Trump wants to “consolidate power in the executive branch.” Pence said he’d like to “revive federalism in America.”
— Analysis by Leah Askarinam of 538

In our pre-debate 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 9 percent of likely Republican primary voters were looking at “improving health care” as one of up to three most important issues (among a list of 20) in deciding which candidate to vote for in the primaries.

—Analysis by Holly Fuong of 538

Using military force in Mexico has become one of DeSantis's signature planks. In the past few months he's talked about sending special forces to confront the cartels, and didn't rule out firing missiles into Mexico either. It's a heavy-handed proposal that just a few years ago probably would have been major news but these days is pretty par for the course for more and more GOP officeholders.
-Jacob Rubashkin, 538 contributor

A plurality (31 percent) of Republican voters in a NewsNation poll from July said that drugs and substance abuse was the overall root cause of crime in their community. Twenty-three percent said the breakdown of the family unit was to blame, followed by 17 percent who listed underfunding of law enforcement. Systemic racism was the least mentioned issue, with just 3 percent of Republicans saying that it was the overall root cause of their community’s crime.
—Analysis by 538

I’ll be monitoring Haley and Christie tonight, who have taken different approaches to arguing for the Republican Party to move beyond Trump. While Haley has been somewhat critical of Trump, Christie has aggressively gone after him. Not coincidentally, Haley remains relatively well-liked among GOP voters, unlike Christie, who is persona non grata to most. I’m interested to see how Haley will seek to balance criticism (indirect or direct) of Trump with efforts to play to base voters, especially in polls of . As for Christie, I’m watching for how other candidates will use him as a foil to demonstrate their pro-Trump bona fides.

—Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley