The Second GOP Debate Lead To Tensions Amongst The GOP
From top left to Right: Governor Ron Desantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, Senator Tim Scott.
Seven candidates for the Republican nominee to run for President in 2024 debated on the stage Sept. 27. The debate was held at Ronald Reagan’s presidential library in California.
The debate was moderated by Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney, Fox News Channel host Dana Perino, and Univision anchor Ilia Calderón.
Those who were on the stage included: Doug Burgum, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tim Scott.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson did not attend the debate due to not meeting the qualifications to be able to participate. He assured his supporters that he would still be in the race.
Even though former President Trump qualified to debate last night, he did not attend. Instead, he went to Michigan in order to gain support for those on the auto workers' strike. Michigan is thought to be a key state in the general election to be won.
One of the consistent themes of the night was the debaters pointing out Trump not attending and shed light on the negative impact of this.
One of the most notable call-outs was by Chris Christie who stated, “You’re ducking these things. And let me tell you what’s going to happen. You keep doing that, no one here’s going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”
Trump went on to tell the GOP to cancel future debates because it sheds a bad light on the Republican party.
Topics Discussed
The debate opened with questions about the United Auto Workers strike. Those who answered took a swing at President Biden.
“Joe Biden should not be on the picket line. He should be on the southern border,” said Tim Scott. He went on to focus his answers on concerns for the southern border.
The debate went on to discuss the United States’ economic future. For this, the candidates believed that the future should focus on gas. They believed that focusing on electricity would only benefit China.
“Joe Biden’s Green New Deal agenda is good for Beijing and bad for Detroit,” Mike Pence stated.
China was also a key topic. Ron DeSantis and President Biden have similar visions for the future. DeSantis wishes to decouple from China and strengthen hard power in the Indo-Pacific. Biden is attempting to lower the U.S. supply chain with China but has denied decoupling.
The border was also mentioned, Vivek Ramaswamy mentioned having a border wall in order to stop fentanyl from coming into the United States. This is not an accurate statement as most fentanyl comes through legal border crossings from U.S. citizens.
During the debate, teenagers were also advised to stay away from social media. “If you’re 16 years old or under, you should not be using an addictive social media product, period,” Ramaswamy stated.
Immigration was mentioned, more in an attempt to blame President Biden for the influx of asylum seekers. Ramaswamy mentioned repealing the constitutional right to birthright citizenship in the United States.
The discussion of education in America took an unprofessional approach as it discussed the sexual relations of Biden with his wife, who is a teacher. Pence chimed in about his relations with his wife, making note that she was not union. This was under the discussion of the Biden administration being too close to the teachers’ union that the schools are now run by unions.
Abortion was also a hot topic in this debate. DeSantis cited the fact that he signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida and still won re-election as proof that Republicans are not losing elections because of abortions. DeSantis believes that Republicans must go on offense in order to combat the Democrat’s “extremism” of abortion.
Moderator Dana Perino asked those on stage to write down who on stage would vote off for the nomination, she stated that if no one is voted off, then Trump is a shoo-in for the win.
“With all due respect, I think that that’s disrespectful,” DeSantis said.
Christie believes Trump should be voted off for dividing the country during his time as President.
Ramaswamy praised Trump’s legacy but believed that a new candidate was needed to push for the “America first” mentality that Trump started.
Thoughts by Center-Right Conservative columnist, Cooper Brown
In the hypothetical scenario where one of the candidates on the debate stage is the Republican nominee, how would they fare against the current democratic frontrunner, President Joe Biden? Based on the performances of the second debate, and excluding former President Donald Trump, it seems that the likeliest candidate to beat Joe Biden in a general election would be Ron DeSantis. This is mostly based on his higher approval ratings among independent voters. On the debate stage, Ron DeSantis is able to point to his extremely conservative record that rivals that of Donald Trump and based on his victory in turning purple states like Florida into a massive victory in 2022. It seems likely that he could draw major support from Republicans for his independence in a general election.
In the same scenario, the candidate that would seemingly perform the worst against Joe Biden in 2024 would be former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. The constant attacks of Chris Christie against Donald Trump seem to alienate a large portion of the Republican Party, which is made up of hard-core Trump supporters. In this regard, if he ever were a presidential candidate, he would likely split the party based purely on his rhetoric towards the former president. Combining this with his disapproval amongst Democrats in his own state, it would likely turn out to be the most disastrous.
After witnessing the second Republican primary debate, it remains to be true that Ron DeSantis would still likely hold the greatest shot of beating Joe Biden. excluding Donald Trump. Chris Christie, on the other hand, seems to be the breakout candidate in terms of the problems he may suffer through if you were ever to become the Republican nominee and go head-to-head against the president.
Commentary from Social Democratic columnist, Isabella Magness
In a lively second Republican debate characterized more by shouting matches and mud-slinging than honest political opinions and strategies for potential presidential administrations, most viewers agree that the only female candidate, Nikki Haley, came out on top.
Haley approached the debate with a level-headedness and sharp wit that set her apart from her male counterparts, and had the most substantive answers to questions about healthcare, inflation, education, and worker's unions. Not only were all of her statements factually correct, but Haley appears to be the most willing to meet Democrats in the middle, a hardship the GOP has struggled with for years.
Her opinions on essential issues affecting the working class–––income taxes, small businesses, the welfare state, and manufacturing jobs–––held water and demonstrated her strength and effort in devising a campaign that truly resonated with conservative American voters.
In the first debate, Haley promised to protect those receiving Social Security and Medicare, maintaining the programs for people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and attempting to limit the benefits that disproportionately benefit wealthy people. She proposed cutting middle-class taxes, tackling inflation, and reducing government spending to staunch the ever-growing national debt.
Haley also demonstrated a readiness to criticize her party's practices and push for more moderate bills and reform that wouldn't alienate liberal voters.
Of the seven remaining Republican candidates in the presidential race, Nikki Haley would be the most open to a few social democratic ideals (such as bringing power back to the working class, reducing corporate control over wealth, and accepting that some government assistance can be helpful) and has a more concrete plan for the American people than other contenders.
On the other hand, Ron DeSantis appears unwilling to budge in his extraordinarily conservative views and likely will force Joe Biden and the Democratic Party to slide further left (and away from the concerns of the working class) to oppose him. Under DeSantis, the Republican Party might abandon substantial plans for reforming the economy, coming up with conceivable, moderate strategies to help the working class, and instead turn to culture wars and social issues that divide even conservatives.
DeSantis put forth his opinion on reproductive rights in the debate, one of his only significant sentiments, advocating for a 15-week abortion ban and criticizing Trump for his nonaction on the issue.
Further controversial subjects that DeSantis chooses to focus on in his campaign are abolishing the "woke ideology" by banning certain subjects in schools, ceasing the provision of foreign aid to Ukraine, stricter immigration policies, and assailing Donald Trump for various wrongdoings.
Polls indicate that, while DeSantis is still runner-up for the Republican Party nomination, his support from likely Republican voters is slipping. DeSantis's far-right ideology may isolate conservative voters who want a candidate who is tough on the economy and an advocate for the struggling working class, not an advocate of reactionary politics.
For a "party of small government" representative that claims to be "for the working class," DeSantis seems likelier to restrict citizens' rights and slander opponents rather than attempt to solve the government's gridlock problem and appeal to voters' best interests.
Commentary from Center-Left Social Liberal columnist, Samantha Strauss
Wednesday’s GOP debate served as another opportunity for presidential hopefuls of 2024 to show off their ability absent of Donald Trump. While many candidates demonstrated continued reliability and competence, Ron Desantis remains the best poised to beat Joe Biden in a general election.
Currently, Desantis is 2nd in the polls, behind Trump and is one of the most well-known candidates on the stage. He has garnered national attention for his culture war issues taking strong stances on parental rights in education, history teaching, and LGBTQ issues. These stances have won him high popularity within the Republican party. He poses as an alternative to Donald Trump; given Trump’s recent criminal charges, Desantis is a more palatable option for many conservatives.
He is very far right on the social issues Republicans care about. Further, Biden’s popularity remains low in general. Given Desantis’ likeability and fresh face to the national stage, he has the potential to sway more voters fed up with Biden’s policies than the other Republican candidates.
Many other candidates are not well known enough or too moderate. Desantis remains a strong conservative for his base but offers a more neutral alternative to those voters who remain undecided between Trump and Biden. He is the biggest challenge to Joe Biden as a Republican candidate. His youth, national popularity, and solid conservatism represents a clear alternative to the aging president.
While the debate showed many strong candidates, it also included candidates with extremely low polling numbers. Doug Burgum was one such candidate. He is the governor of North Dakota and is among the lowest polling candidates currently.
Beyond his lack of national recognition, he is not the governor of a populous place, making many voters question his ability to govern 330 million.
Additionally, he was not given frequent opportunities to speak at the Republican debate. To combat this, he frequently interrupted the moderators in an attempt to solicit audience attention. The issue got so severe the moderators threatened to cut off his mic.
This behavior is not only not fitting for a presidential candidate, but it demonstrates that the moderators did not believe the audience wanted to hear from him as frequently as other candidates.
Joe Biden would not have a hard time beating him. He lacks political charisma and a clear platform. Therefore, he does not offer a clear alternative to Joe Biden in the way Ron Desantis does.
His poor polling numbers reflect his inability to win voters over, which is a necessity in a tight race, such as the 2024 election. Joe Biden’s tested political ability on the national stage would make this an easy victory for the current commander-in-chief.
Future
The next debate is scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami.
There are said to be stricter qualifications for this debate. For the next debate, candidates will need to prove that they have 70,000 donors as opposed to the 50,000 donors. Still with the same qualifications of at least 200 each in 20 or more states.
In the next debate, they also will need to register at least 4% in two national polls or in one national poll and two polls from different early-nominating states as opposed to the 3% from this past debate.
Burgum and Christie are predicted to struggle to reach the qualifications for the next debate. Former President Trump is also likely to decline again.