The Republican Primary Debates
With the 2024 Presidential Election approaching fast, Republican presidential nominees have taken to the debate stage to face off against their competition within the Republican party. So far, two debates have been held for the Republican party. Among the choices for nominees are:
- North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum
- New Jersey’s former Governor, Chris Christie
- South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
- Ambassador to the United Nations, and former Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley
- Biotech mogul and entrepreneur, Vivek Ramaswamy
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
- Former President of the United States, Donald Trump.
Former Governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson failed to qualify after the first round of debates. Every single one of these candidates was present at both debates except for one exception, former President Donald Trump. For the first time in history, a presidential candidate has had indictment claims against them before a presidential election. According to The New York Post, Trump has claimed the reason he won’t attend debates is because “the public knows who I am and what a successful presidency I had.” Even though the former President was not at the debates, he leads the polls with a whopping 55.4% as of today, according to ABC News. DeSantis is second after Trump with a large difference, as he only has 13.7% of the polls. A few candidates including DeSantis have attacked Trump for not showing up to the debates, former Governor Christie even going as far as to call him “Donald Duck” for ducking the debates. The attacks don’t stop there. Throughout the second debate, all the candidates were speaking over each other, fighting to get a point across. Tim Scott and Nikki Haley have made it a point to go after Ramaswamy, focusing on the fact that he is extremely new to politics and very naive about the area in general. Former Vice President Mike Pence seeks to make it clear that he has the most experience on the debate stage and would be the most qualified person for the Republican nominee. At one point moderators of the debate even threatened to cut off Doug Burgum’s mic. Although there was no clear winner of the second debate, it seems as if Ramaswamy is trying to put himself ahead of the pack by asking the Republican National Committee to reduce the number of candidates to the top 4 leading in the polls for the next debate on November 8th in Miami. Considering the fact that Ramaswamy is fourth in the polls right now, there is an obvious benefit for him. For the Republican party, nothing is set in stone but maybe the third debate will produce a clear winner out of the Republican presidential candidates.
