OPINION: GOP debate won’t move the needle
Danny Murnin is a junior studying journalism and assistant opinion editor for The New Political.
Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated to include the author’s information.
Last Wednesday’s Republican Presidential Debate was pointless. With less than five months until Iowa Republicans hold their first-in-the-nation presidential caucus, former President Donald Trump’s massive polling lead shows no sign of letting up, and why would it?
Other than a few minor disagreements with Trump from other candidates, only former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were willing to explicitly criticize the frontrunner for the nomination. The six other candidates on stage even pledged to pardon him if he is convicted in one or more of his four upcoming trials. This includes former Vice President Mike Pence, who was nearly killed by Trump’s angry mob of supporters on January 6, 2021.
The entire debate was overall just a sad state of affairs. Not one candidate on the stage acknowledged the existence of human behavior-caused climate change despite the scientific consensus backing it and LGBTQ+ individuals were once again used as attack fodder in discussions about issues that only a very small part of the country cares about. The candidates railed on and on about how they think President Joe Biden has destroyed the economy, but none of them had any actual solutions besides usual talking points about cutting welfare spending.
According to post-debate polling, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and political newcomer and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy performed best at the debate.
DeSantis’s tanking campaign after high initial expectations has been one of the main stories of the 2024 election cycle, but he seemed just angry enough and said enough of his rehearsed lines to keep the interest of Republican voters. Ramaswamy’s isolationist foreign policy views and willingness to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 Presidential Election, climate change, and even 9/11, unsurprisingly entertained the base.
However, even as a Democrat, I was pleasantly surprised by Haley. She is far too normal to be nominated for President by Republican voters, and I find her views on several issues problematic, but her opposition to a federal abortion ban, fierce defense of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and comment about how Republicans are more to be blamed for runaway spending than Democrats, earned my respect. Biden and the Democrats would be in big trouble if she were to be the nominee, but as I said, that won’t happen.
While the debate was entertaining and even a bit informative, coming from someone who expected more chaos, everything that happened during it is still meaningless if the other Republican candidates don’t hit Trump more. Sucking up to the guy leading big in all of the polls is not how you get nominated for President by voters, but his opponents either don’t understand that or are too afraid of Trump for it to make a difference.
In future debates, these eight candidates need to find a way to actually stand out if they want to pull off an upset. Becoming your party’s nominee for President requires an actual effort to stand out and promote an agenda and plan to beat your general election opponent. These Republicans have not properly done that, just one reason why none of them should be taken seriously.
