After last month’s debate, we declared Haley as a big debate winner, according to our previous poll with The Washington Post and Ipsos. When likely Republican primary voters who watched the debate were asked whether they’d consider voting for each candidate, Haley jumped from 30 percent before the debate to 47 percent after. Overall, participation in the debate was beneficial for candidates, and absence from the debate was (at least marginally) detrimental.

We’ll be following up with the same group as our pre-debate poll to see how participants performed and what respondents' views on all of the candidates are. Check back in with 538 tomorrow afternoon for our post-debate analysis.

—Analysis by Holly Fuong of 538

DeSantis gets another chance to be the adult in the room by rejecting the premise of that moderator question. He did the same thing in the first debate when the moderators asked candidates to raise their hands if they believed in man-made climate change.
-Jacob Rubashkin, 538 contributor

Moderator Dana Perino asked every candidate to write down which challenger they would “vote off the island.” DeSantis refused, prompting Perino to rework her approach, asking for his mathematical approach to winning the nomination — and of course, that’s not going to work with a politician. Christie, however, interjected that he’d be just fine voting Trump off the island.
-- Analysis by Leah Askarinam of 538

DeSantis claimed that his 1.5 million-vote victory was the largest in a Florida gubernatorial election in state history. Now, his nearly-20 percentage point margin of victory was quite large in what has historically been a swing state. But it's quite misleading to use the raw vote margin since population has changed quite a bit over time! This is especially true in a state like Florida, which has grown by leaps and bounds. For instance, a candidate would've had a tougher time winning by 1.5 million votes in 1990, when the state had a population of about 13 million, than in 2022, when the state had a population of about 22 million.

— Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of 538

I’m monitoring Pence tonight, and I’ve got to be honest: I don’t know how much he can do to increase his standing in the primary other than hope that other candidates implode. During the last debate, he had plenty of speaking time and, given Trump’s hatred for his former vice president, a pretty strong reception from the Fox News crowd. But still, nothing substantially changed. Voters expected him to give an average performance, and he pretty much delivered. He’s averaging less than 5 percent in national primary polling.

It’s not clear where Pence has room to grow. He’s better known than any candidate on tonight’s debate stage, and voters seem to have decided how they feel about him. If he’s a second-choice to similar candidates — others who, say, share his dislike of Trump but would nonetheless support him in a general election — Pence could benefit from a smaller field. So, the best thing Pence could do might just be to stay the course, continuing to get enough support to appear on a debate stage and waiting out lesser-known and underfunded candidates.

—Analysis by Leah Askarinam