politicsClosed Aug 24, 2023
Updates on First Republican Presidential Primary Debate
- Republican presidential candidates battle in first debate
- Candidates warn China as Ramaswamy hit over foreign policy
- ‘Bidenomics’ is blamed as responsible for recent inflation
- Only female candidate Haley spars with Pence on abortion
- Frontrunner Donald Trump is boycotting debate
2024 Republican presidential candidates Asa Hutchinson, from left, Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott and Doug Burgum during the Republican primary presidential debate hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Aug. 23.
Photographer: Al Drago/BloombergThanks for joining us. Here are the key takeaways from tonight’s debate, the first in the Republican Party’s primary campaign for president:
- Trump hovered over the debate but wasn’t as central to it as you would expect for a candidate leading by 41 points in the Real Clear Politics average of polls
- In his absence, Ramaswamy took most of the heat, but he may have parried it by borrowing from Trump’s playbook, citing the attacks to say he is the only candidate speaking the truth
- DeSantis made his case as expected but may not have had the breakout moment he needed to reboot his campaign, as he’s been falling in the polls
- Scott, Burgum and Hutchinson were at the outer edges of the campaign stage and largely remained there, while Christie and Haley were able to inject themselves more aggressively
- It’s hard to see the debate changing much of the dynamic of the primary, with Trump in the lead, DeSantis in second place but slowly falling, and the other candidates largely fighting for scraps
Updated Aug 23