Haley indirectly swiped at Trump over growing economic hardships and his foreign policies, arguing that he has waffled on support for Ukraine amid Russia's invasion.

She also targeted the former president over his gripes over the 2020 election, arguing, "We can't live in the past, we can't live in other headlines."

-ABC News' Tal Axelrod

Asked why he should be the GOP nominee instead of Trump, Ramaswamy continued going after Trump, like others on stage, responding: "We've become a party of losers."

"We got trounced last night in 2023," Ramaswamy said, referring to Tuesday's disappointments for conservatives in Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia, adding that there needs to be "accountability in our party."

-ABC News' Meredith Deliso

NBC's Lester Holt posed the first question of the night to DeSantis, asking him why he should be the nominee instead of Trump.

"Now if you look where we are now, it's a lot different than we were in 2016 and Donald Trump's a lot different guy than he was in 2016," the Florida governor said, immediately setting a tone on stage in which the various candidates more bluntly criticized the absent front-runner -- something they had not done throughout much of the early primary campaign.

"He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he should get another chance," DeSantis continued. "He should explain why he didn't have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much debt. He should explain why we didn't drain the swamp. He said Republicans were going to get tired of winning. What we saw last night, I'm sick of Republicans losing. In Florida, I showed how it's done."

-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler

DeSantis just cited his large 2022 victory in Florida as a reason why he’s a stronger candidate than Trump. But I looked into this question a few months ago, and I found that the evidence that DeSantis turned Florida into a red state is pretty thin.

-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of 538