GOP Debate Analysis: The Winners and Losers From Milwaukee

The first 2024 Republican primary debate is in the history books. You can watch the full debate video available here if you missed it.

For roughly two hours, eight presidential hopefuls, not including former President Donald Trump, sparred over a variety of issues ranging from the border to the economy, to the climate change hoax and beyond. Of course, abortion was a big topic as well, mostly for the moderators.

Here’s a rundown of the winners and losers from Wednesday night’s debate in Milwaukee.

Asa Hutchinson

From the onset of the debate, one had to begin asking what former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was even doing there. He’s a borderline candidate as best who clearly isn’t going anywhere in the primary. He’s taking time away from serious candidates with more than one percent of polling support. Like Chris Christie, Hutchinson is there to take off his glove and slap Trump, and Trump-voting Republicans, in the face as often as he can. That is not a recipe for a successful presidential campaign considering Trump’s polling numbers. Hutchinson’s campaign started and ended on Wednesday night.

Chris Christie

The anti-Trump act wore out after the first five seconds. Vivek Ramaswamy ended up putting Christie in his place on several occasions. Perhaps the best exchange was when Christie, who alleges Trump’s 2024 campaign is about nothing but vengeance, finally had a mirror held up to his own campaign. This was perhaps one of Ramaswamy’s best lines of the night and the point at which Christie’s open hatred toward Trump finally got the better of him. Again, Christie isn’t going to be the nominee, he should put a lid on it and head back to Jersey before the summer’s over.

Mike Pence

Believe it or not, Pence had a solid night. He’s robotic, stiff, and going nowhere in the primary, but he was perhaps the only other candidate on stage besides Ramaswamy defending the Trump administration’s record of low unemployment and a booming economy. Pence is a dichotomy and it shows from answer to answer. On the one hand, he wants to take credit for what he calls the Trump-Pence administration. Then, in the next breath, he’s ripping the former president for allegedly asking him to put Trump’s presidency over the Constitution. Pence is going nowhere in the primary but he may have helped himself with some voters on Wednesday night. Still, though, the stiff delivery was difficult to watch like he was having trouble pushing the words out of his mouth.

Ron DeSantis

It’s not that DeSantis did bad but he didn’t do great. There were portions of the debate where he disappeared and maybe that was by design. Avoid getting into confrontations and simply try to maintain his status leaving the night. What it felt like as a viewer was a candidate afraid to mix it up except for the portions where his rehearsed talking points fit in nicely. In the video above, DeSantis was almost the last to raise his hand saying he would support Trump, a sign that he was uncertain or perhaps calculating the best way to respond. Essentially he looked around to make sure it was “safe” to raise his hand. DeSantis’ peak of the night was another early “hand-raising” question about climate change where he said what everyone was thinking, candidate and viewer alike:

Vivek Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy never backed down on any issue and never gave in ground to any opponent on stage. In short, he looked like he deserved the center-stage position. He was also the only candidate who raised his hand to go on the record opposing blank check spending to Ukraine, one of his standout moments that left the field fighting over the Reagan doctrine and which one appeared to be more neocon than the other. His hand raising also put DeSantis in a tough spot that he walked himself into trying to have it both ways. Overall, Ramaswamy isn’t going to be the nominee but he did make a great audition for a running mate or expand his possibility for a future political run. He’s young, he’s bold, and he’s inexperienced, but he’s also confident and that’s what makes him attractive.

Nikki Haley

Where did Nikki Haley disappear to for most of the debate? She finally woke up arguing with Ramaswamy over Ukraine funding only to fall back asleep again. During the first hour, Haley came out appearing to support the theory of man-made climate change and opposing attempts by her own party to put federal restrictions on abortion. One had to wonder which party she was running for. Even if you think a federal abortion ban or restrictions bad politics for the GOP, it’s where the heart of the party is, and shooting down the monumental efforts made to overturn Roe v. Wade by Haley seemed like a wet blanket in the room. Whatever momentum she had before this died on Wednesday night in Milwaukee. One of her biggest moments was attacking Ramaswamy for basically attacking the entire field. It’s a good sound bite but Ramaswamy’s answer, drowned out by applause, probably won the night as the main point he was trying to make. He’s inexperienced, sure, but the rest of the field on stage spent the past couple of decades cheering on endless wars.

Tim Scott

Perhaps Scott’s biggest downfall is that he’s too nice. He plays by the rules, he’s polite, and does not want to get scolded by the moderators for speaking out of turn. This, unfortunately, was his greatest weakness on a live debate stage where others, like Ramswamy or Christie, would jump in whenever they felt the need. Scott had some great answers. His passionate talk on abortion and why Republicans must push for legislation on the federal level was well-received. If Republicans don’t stake out pro-life ground federally, Scott argued, Democrats will be pushing pro-abortion legislation in the opposite direction trying to allow the barbaric practice up until birth, maybe even after birth. All-in-all, Scott would be a great running mate but he’s got to learn to play better in the big leagues and get a little more forceful.

Doug Burgum

Burgum is up because you now know the name Doug Burgum. Before Wednesday night, no one could’ve picked the North Dakota governor out of a crowd, and they probably still can’t. He was a nice midwestern bookend on the stage who barely made the cut. He’s going nowhere and should just pull the plug right now but, of course, as a politician, he’ll fight on to the bitter end taking time away from serious candidates and wasting money from donors.

The Moderators

You’d think from decades of badly moderated debates that the moderators would improve. They still became a part of the story, they still lost control of the timing, and they still asked dumb questions. Abortion and climate change are not topics that Republicans really need to debate between themselves, there’s almost universal agreement on the pro-life stance and agreement that using climate change as a means to grow government and enact a green energy agenda is a scam on the entire planet. Pressing issues concerning the economy, inflation, and other matters that people actually care about received less time so Fox News could lob stupid questions about climate change and abortion as the low-hanging fruit in the room. Missing topics included a discussion of Covid policies, something where DeSantis has tried to draw lines between himself and Trump. There was also little time devoted to border security as well. As a prime example of the second-hour chaos, here’s Nikki Haley yelling at moderators to “get control of this debate”:

Donald Trump

The one person benefitting most from the debate wasn’t on stage. Trump, instead, released a taped interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson on X (formerly Twitter). The 45-minute sit-down was timed to be released at the start of the debate. You can watch it below if you missed it. During the actual debate, there were perhaps 10 to 15 minutes dedicated to bashing Trump at the start of the second hour but few candidates took the bait other than Christie and Hutchinson. Pence recited his constitutional oath numerous times as a rebuttal to Trump but everyone’s heard that robotic tone before. Essentially, the former president came out of the debate unscathed and untouched. He was defended several times by Ramaswamy and even by Pence, and reluctantly DeSantis.

After Wednesday, Trump will remain on top and there might be some shuffling in the second, third, and fourth-place positions.