On education, Ramaswamy says he would eliminate the Department of Education and make families more central to their children's educational choice. Central to Ramaswamy's campaign is that several federal agencies should be eliminated, but the idea of parental choice in education has swept through conservative states this year. Four Republican-led states passed new universal voucher programs that would allow parents to take tax dollars and spend them on private schools, including religious schools, or homeschool their children. More states have pushed for parental bills of rights that allow students' parents to have more of a say, and object to more, curricula.
-Analysis by Monica Potts of FiveThirtyEight

According to a Ipsos/Reuters poll from July, 77 percent of Republicans say that transgender athletes should not be able to participate in children’s sports at the elementary/high school level. Just 18 percent say they should, and 6 percent are not sure.
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight

Ramaswamy and Haley traded shots on his Israel and Russia-Ukraine views, with Ramaswamy interrupting Haley and claiming she has been saying misleading things about his proposals on Israel. Ramaswamy has called for winding down aid to Israel after integrating the country more into the region.

"I wish you well on your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon,” Ramaswamy quipped, referring to the aerospace and defense companies.

Haley struck back: "You have no foreign policy experience and it shows," she said -- and was met with cheers and applause from the audience.

-ABC News’ Abby Cruz

Trump wasted no time attacking other Republican candidates during his pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Carlson.

"I'm saying, do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it's going to be and get harassed by people that shouldn't even be running for president?" Trump said.

The 46-minute interview -- released on Carlson's X account as the GOP debate got underway -- is being seen among the campaigns as an attempt to counter-program the first debate among 2024 Republican presidential candidates on Fox News.

Read more about the interview here.

-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa , Soo Rin Kim and Meredith Deliso

Members of DeSantis’s campaign are still upset about a debate memo that was prepared and published last week by a super PAC supporting the governor, a source close to the campaign told ABC News on Wednesday, describing those members of his team as “wildly irritated.”

Chief among the complaints is that the memo, which detailed suggested approaches and lines of attack, effectively handcuffs DeSantis by preventing the governor from using any of the advice on stage lest he invite attacks from opponents for using lines manufactured for him by other people.

The memo included research documents that show that Axiom Strategies, a consulting firm tied to the super political action committee, anticipated that the biggest hits to DeSantis would include his battle with Disney -- ABC News' parent company -- past comments on Ukraine, Florida's Black history standard, the culture wars and abortion.

The packet also included past comments made by presidential hopefuls attacking DeSantis on those specific subjects.

DeSantis himself has downplayed the memo, telling Fox News recently, “It’s not mine. I haven’t read it. It’s just -- I think it’s something that we have put off to the side.”

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie, Will McDuffie and Olivia Osteen