Republican debate highlights and analysis: Candidates squabble in Simi Valley
2024 hopefuls argued over education, spending and border security.
The second Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary, taking place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, has just come to an end.
The affair was more raucous than the first debate, which took place over a month ago. Candidates interrupted one another much more regularly and several — most notably former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — have directly criticized front-runner Donald Trump, who elected not to show up tonight. The two candidates from South Carolina, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, went after one another for their records on spending, and seemingly everyone who had the chance to take a shot at entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy did so.
Read below for highlights, excerpts and key moments.
Latest headlines:
- South Carolina on South Carolina: Nikki Haley and Tim Scott spar several times on stage
- Brief debate answers on Ukraine reveal a rift among Republicans over the issue
- Survivor, GOP primary edition?
- Pence seems to be playing out the string
- Ramaswamy and Scott's debate over birthright citizenship devolves into chaotic exchange
DeSantis gets in a signature issue
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
Christie on crime
Christie gets the first question out of the break on how to handle crime, and he made the case that he's the only person on stage whose done it as a former prosecutor. But he turned the question into an attack on Trump, calling out Trump for skipping out on the debate, saying that soon he'll be called "Donald Duck" for avoiding it. The thing is, Christie has essentially a 0 percent chance of winning the GOP nomination, so it's not especially interesting to hear him go after Trump. Earlier in the debate, DeSantis did echo an attack Christie made by hitting Trump for not being on stage to defend the former president's record on spending. More of those kind of dings from anyone besides Christie would be a development in this debate.
DeSantis stands by his decision to suspend two elected prosecutors in Florida, and says he'll bring civil rights cases (?) against local prosecutors as president.
-Jacob Rubashkin, 538 contributor
Who Am I? Why Am I Here?
Hello readers! I’m Jacob Rubashkin (not 1992 VP candidate James Stockdale), and I’m a reporter and analyst for Inside Elections, a small, nonpartisan newsletter that does in-depth coverage of House, Senate, gubernatorial and presidential races. You may have seen our “race ratings,” which we publish regularly to assess each party’s chance of winning every election around the country.
Tonight, I’ll be reporting for duty as a 538 contributor, as I’ve done for many debates, primaries, and general elections over the past two years. I’ll be providing live analysis on the events playing out on stage, and also thinking about how the course of the GOP presidential primary will affect the fight for Congress next year, when Republicans aim to win back full control of Washington, D.C. (The debate is taking place in California’s 26th District, which is Solid Democratic, but right next door is the highly competitive 27th District, where vulnerable GOP Rep. Mike Garcia might not appreciate having to run with Trump at the top of the ticket).
—Analysis by Jacob Rubashkin, 538 Contributor