Ramaswamy introduced himself to a national audience from center stage, arguing that an outsider is needed to move America forward.

"First, let me just address a question that is on everybody's mind at home tonight: Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name and what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage? I'll tell you, I'm not a politician. Bret, you're right about that. I'm an entrepreneur," Ramaswamy told co-moderator Bret Baier.

"Now is our moment to start running to something to our vision of what it means to be an American today. If you have a broken car, you don't turn over the keys to the people who broke it again. You hand it over to a new generation to actually fix the problem. That's why I'm in this race, and we're just getting warmed up."

In his response on how to steady the economy, Christie pointed to his record taking on debt in New Jersey and argued he could do the same in to "fight waste" in Washington -- invoking a cut-the-spending mentality that has long been popular among conservatives but became less prominent with Trump's rise, as he focused on other initiatives.

"We cannot sit by any longer and allow the kind of spending that is going on in Washington," Christie said. "Every dollar they spend is a dollar that these people are not allowed to spend on their children and grandchildren. It is robbing our country and it is wrong."

Scott also jumped on government spending as a major problem, touting his votes against legislation by Democrats.

"Over the last several years, I've had an opportunity to vote against spending package after spending package after spending package," Scott said. "And we also need to understand is that Joe Biden's Bidenomics has led to the loss of $10,000 of spending power for the average family."

Interesting early questions by the Fox News hosts. DeSantis got to go first, understandably, and he didn't face any questions about his tenure as governor. By comparison, when the hosts turned to Christie and Scott, they faced questions about state debate in Christie's case and Scott's voting record on spending bills. Both seemed caught a little off balance by actual scrutiny of their records.
-Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of FiveThirtyEight

Interesting early questions by the Fox News hosts. DeSantis got to go first, understandably, and he didn't face any questions about his tenure as governor. By comparison, when the hosts turned to Christie and Scott, they faced questions about state debate in Christie's case and Scott's voting record on spending bills. Both seemed caught a little off balance by actual scrutiny of their records.

Trump maintains a lead of 28 percentage points over his nearest competitor in South Carolina, according to the latest polls.

Haley and Scott, the two candidates from South Carolina, are both polling higher in South Carolina than they are nationally, according to our polling average. Trump is polling about 7 points lower in South Carolina than in national polls.

Only one pollster, the Manhattan Institute has tested the favorability of Republican candidates in South Carolina since July 1. That survey found Scott and DeSantis had the highest net favorability in the state (+56 and +55 percentage points, respectively), and Trump and Haley close behind (+39 and +33 points, respectively). Pence had a net favorability of +1 point, and Christie was underwater by -36 points.

Economic issues are most important to Republican primary voters in South Carolina, according to a July survey from Fox Business/Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research. Fifty-one percent of Republican voters said economic issues would be most important for deciding their vote. Twelve percent each said immigration issues, social issues and foreign policy were most important.

In an August survey by National Public Affairs, 40 percent of South Carolina Republican voters said that Trump wouldn’t lose their support even if he did not show up to the debate. Twelve percent said that they support Trump, but if he didn’t debate they would be open to or definitely supporting someone else, 32 percent said they wouldn’t vote for Trump regardless, 9 percent said they probably wouldn’t watch the debate anyway and 6 percent were unsure.

-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight