With Donald Trump in Georgia for his arrest at the Fulton County Jail, eight of his challengers took to the debate stage in Milwaukee to make their arguments as to why they are his best alternative. Trump opted out of the debate. Candidates debated on issues important to conservative and independent voters, such as transgender kids in sports, gender affirming policy, immigration, and Trump’s charges.
Vivek Ramaswamy, founder of Roivant Sciences–a pharmaceutical company–took the debate stage to make his presence known, attacking and criticizing nearly every other debater. Ramaswamy, who has no previous experience in government, criticized former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley on foreign policy, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie for his attacks on Trump, and pledged to create more fossil fuel based jobs in the U.S. while baselessly referring to climate change as a “hoax.” For a candidate who needed to get his name out, he certainly did.
Others, such as Haley, surprised many with her detailed and often more moderate views on issues like abortion. While all candidates were overwhelmingly pro-life, Haley noted that getting Congress to pass a bill, especially in a split Senate, would be challenging. Instead, she focused on compromises, like banning late term abortions and a 15 week abortion ban federally. Haley
was also the only candidate to acknowledge that climate change is real, but refused to acknowledge America’s role in its exacerbation.
Former vice president Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and Ron DeSantis all struggled to elevate their campaign messaging. Pence was rightly applauded by all of his competitors (except Ramaswamy) for the certification of the 2020 election results, but picked too many battles with Ramaswamy on his experience and the previous election, which led to most of Pence’s remarks in the later stages of the debate being drowned out by boos. Chris Christie’s main goal is to stop Trump from winning, and that didn’t bode well for his speaking time. Every criticism of Trump and his support of his criminal indictments left him sinking further into the shadows of the stage. DeSantis failed to convince any viewers that he had any creative ideas to solve issues like the southern border, other than getting Mexico to fix it. He stuck to his prerehearsed slogans and overused messaging about finishing the wall and eliminating “woke indoctrination,” and when the conversation drifted from that, he was a spectator or his arguments were taken apart by his competitors. Remaining candidates Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Former Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas only spoke when addressed.
This debate really signified the iron grip that Trump has on the Republican party. Any time a debater criticized the former president, they couldn’t even be addressed by the moderators without getting booed. And it’s no surprise, considering that all eight debaters have a combined 42% of the vote according to the polls. Trump has the rest. Unless Trump gets criminally convicted, most expect him to be the Republican nominee. But if he does, none of the candidates did themselves a favor in improving their standing as the Republican backup.
This article also appears in our September 2023 print edition.
