Republican debate highlights and analysis: Fiery faceoff on Trump, Ukraine and more
The 2024 hopefuls took the stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, without Trump.
The first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary was held in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
Eight candidates qualified for a spot on the stage: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
Missing from the event was the primary's early front-runner: former President Donald Trump, who declined to participate and instead released a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson.
ABC News and FiveThirtyEight live-blogged every major moment and highlight from the debate, aired on Fox News, with FiveThirtyEight providing analysis and a closer look at the polling and data behind the politicians. PolitiFact made real-time fact checks of key statements.
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The idea that all of this is "not that complicated" and "pretty simple" is Ramaswamy's pitch. He's organized his campaign around the idea of simple truths. As expected, he's already drawn attacks from other candidates on the stage. Pence has already hammered him on his lack of experience.
-Analysis by Monica Potts of FiveThirtyEight
Christie is greeted to debate stage with boos
Christie received loud boos from the crowd as moderators introduced the Republican field at the start of the debate. As of August 2023, the former New Jersey governor’s unfavorability rating is nearly 49%, according to the latest polling averages [published by FiveThirtyEight], () while his favorability rating hovers at 23%.
-ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Olivia Osteen
On COVID-19, Republicans are not happy with the Biden administration’s response. According to a Ipsos/Reuters survey from August, only 27 percent of Republicans think the administration has done the right amount to promote public health and fight COVID-19, compared to 66 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of independents. Thirty-three percent of Republicans said the administration has done too much, and 30 percent said it has done too little.
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight
Haley has been struggling to distinguish herself among the presidential field, so it's notable that she came out swinging against not just the men on the stage with her but Republicans in Washington, DC as well, for passing those substantial spending bills during the Covid-19 pandemic.
–Analysis from Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
FiveThirtyEight takeaway: DeSantis did well, Ramaswamy a wild card
I was watching DeSantis tonight, and overall I think he did well. Despite perhaps underestimating the strength of his mic (he came across several times like he was yelling), DeSantis came across as confident and didn’t have any of the awkward moments that have gotten him bad attention on the campaign trail. In terms of substance, he turned the conversation toward issue areas that play to his strengths, like COVID-19, wokeness in education and natural disaster leadership.
That said, according to our FiveThirtyEight/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, Republicans already had pretty high expectations for DeSantis in this debate, so maybe his good performance won’t change their priors. (We’ll have to wait for the second wave of our poll to know for sure!) Really what I’m watching for after this debate is what happens to Ramaswamy. Like I wrote earlier, I think he’s the main story of this debate, but I don’t think I have a good handle on whether his performance will be received well or poorly.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight