Ramaswamy taking a minute to introduce himself shows how he's still a semi-unknown quantity. But he got big applause from the crowd.
-Analysis by Monica Potts of FiveThirtyEight

Ramaswamy’s “skinny guy with a funny last name” line is a direct reference to Obama’s famous line about being a “skinny guy with a funny name” in his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention. Ramaswamy, of course, wouldn’t mind following Obama’s same path to the White House.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight

As the debate got underway, Burgum was seen standing without his crutches on the presidential primary stage. Just one day ago, on Tuesday, the North Dakota governor tore his Achilles tendon and was seen just hours ago using crutches.

--ABC News' Kelsey Walsh

Christie just made an electability argument — that he was elected as a Republican in the blue state of New Jersey. (Specifically, he won the 2009 gubernatorial election by 4 percentage points a year after Obama won the state by 16.) The only problem is, only 25 percent of Republicans said the ability to beat Biden was one of the most important factors to their vote, according to a recent FiveThirtyEight/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight

Recent election cycles have shown how debates can substantially alter a candidate’s trajectory. The debates won’t always do this, of course, and early primary polls remain relatively predictive of who will end up winning a party’s nomination. However, a candidate can earn a real polling bounce from a debate — or fall into a valley.

Primary polls are inherently more volatile than general election polls. In a general election, most voters already lean toward one party, so only a small part of the electorate is likely to shift its views over the course of a campaign. But in a primary, voters in one party may be open to multiple candidates because most contenders will share similar views on a number of issues. As a result, exposure to an unfamiliar candidate could prompt voters to begin considering that contender, while a strong or weak performance by a candidate they do know could make them look elsewhere.

For example, early in the 2012 cycle, Texas Gov. Rick Perry appeared to be now-Sen. Mitt Romney’s most serious opponent for the Republican nomination. But in a September 2011 debate, Perry defended a Texas policy that gave undocumented immigrants access to in-state college tuition. The backlash from the GOP base came swiftly, as Perry fell out of contention in the polls, well before a later debate in which he — oops — forgot the name of the third of three federal agencies that he aimed to dismantle as president. Four years later, former tech executive Carly Fiorina had very little support early in the 2016 Republican race, but in August 2015 she stood out in an “undercard” debate. Her polling numbers improved and she made the main stage in subsequent debates, giving her a platform that eventually led Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to make her his vice presidential pick in a last-ditch attempt to rally support against Trump in the 2016 primary.

-Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of FiveThirtyEight