Republican debate: Will DeSantis and Haley take fight to Trump or each
other?
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[November 08, 2023]
By James Oliphant
MIAMI (Reuters) - An intensifying rivalry between Ron DeSantis and Nikki
Haley could dominate Wednesday's Republican debate as the two 2024 U.S.
presidential hopefuls seek to present themselves as their party's best
alternative to former President Donald Trump.
Haley, 51, in third place nationally, has grown stronger as she seeks to
dislodge DeSantis, 45, from his distant second place in the Republican
race after Trump. The debate, in Miami, begins at 8 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on
Thursday).
With the first Republican state nominating contest, in Iowa, little more
than two months away, Haley, a former South Carolina governor who also
served as Trump's U.N. ambassador, and Florida Governor DeSantis are
running out of time.
Trump, 77, has done his best to deny them a direct target.
The debate will be the third Trump has skipped — a gambit that has yet
to cost him support in opinion polls that show him the overwhelming
Republican frontrunner to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden, 80.
In the two previous televised debates, Haley and DeSantis have been
careful not to come down on Trump too hard for fear of alienating his
supporters, whose backing they will need if they are to ultimately
capture the Republican nomination in July.
The election is almost exactly a year away - Nov. 5, 2024.
Aaron Kall, an expert on presidential debates at the University of
Michigan, said none of the five candidates on stage on Wednesday can
afford to shy away from criticizing Trump any longer.
“If they don’t try to pull Trump down, they are not going to achieve
their objective,” he said.
Trump will hold a campaign rally a few miles away in the heavily
Hispanic city of Hialeah. Hispanics are a voting group both parties will
be courting heavily.
DESANTIS AT HOME IN FLORIDA
The Florida debate setting offers DeSantis a home advantage over others
on stage. There he can talk up his accomplishments as governor. But
Trump, who lives in nearby Palm Beach, is also highly popular in the
state.
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Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron
DeSantis look over at each other during the second Republican
candidates' debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign at the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, U.S.
September 27, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
Haley will be coming off two strong debate performances and has been
the only Republican besides Trump to show recent momentum in early
nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
With the month-old Israeli-Hamas conflict making headlines in the
United States as elsewhere, the debate may afford an opportunity for
Haley, with her U.N. experience, to flash her foreign policy
credentials.
Haley’s campaign on Monday released a memo arguing Haley is now the
party’s leading option other than Trump, citing her relative
strength in Iowa, New Hampshire and her home state of South
Carolina, which holds a primary in February.
The memo, written by
Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, contends DeSantis has no
endgame for securing the nomination even if he does well in Iowa.
In response, the DeSantis campaign released a memo asserting that he
is the only one who can defeat Trump in Iowa and keep him from an
unstoppable march toward the nomination.
While both hope to capitalize on strong debate performances, the
debate could well fail to offer a turning point in what has been a
race dominated by Trump from the start.
The three other debate participants - former New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Senator Tim
Scott - will be trying to assert their relevance and find a path
forward.
Ramaswamy could well use the debate stage to promote his
non-interventionist foreign policy as he seeks to position himself
as the least likely candidate to wade into a foreign war.
(Reporting by James Oliphant in Miami; additional reporting by Gram
Slatter; editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
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