The third Republican debate will kick off tonight with fewer 2024 candidates than ever before. Here’s everything you need to know before the White House hopefuls hit the stage.
When and where is the debate?
The two-hour debate will start at 8 p.m. ET and will be held in Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.
How can I watch it?
NBC News will be hosting the debate. The program will be aired on television, and can also be viewed on NBC’s streaming and digital platforms, including on NBCNews.com.
Who will be moderating?
NBC “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker and Hugh Hewitt, host of the “Hugh Hewitt Show” on Salem Radio Network will moderate the debate.
Which candidates will be there?
Five candidates qualified for the debate, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
The Republican National Committee confirmed the qualifiers Monday evening.
“We are looking forward to our third debate in Miami, a welcome opportunity for our candidates to showcase our winning conservative agenda to the American people,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.
What about Trump?
Former President Donald Trump chose to skip out on the debate, as he has done with every other RNC debate in the 2024 cycle. Instead, the 45th president will be holding a campaign rally in Hialeah, Florida, approximately 10 miles away from the Miami debate stage.
Trump is sitting over 40 points ahead of the other candidates in the polls, making him the GOP frontrunner. He has called on the RNC to cancel debates to “refocus its manpower” on defeating President Biden.
Other candidates have expressed interest in Trump coming to the debate. DeSantis taunted Trump with an invitation, asking if he has the “balls to show up” to the debate. At the second debate, Christie gave him the monicker “Donald Duck” for “ducking” from showing up on stage.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the RNC debate a “little league side show” compared to Trump’s rally, reiterating that the former president has no interest in making an appearance.
“What happens on the debate stage will be insignificant and inconsequential. The big ticket item will be President Trump’s rally, not some little league side show with the other candidates,” Cheung told The Post.
The ex-commander-in-chief faced a slew of legal battles this week. On Monday, he testified in a Manhattan court in the $250 million case accusing him, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. and the Trump Organization of a fraud scheme that New York Attorney General Letitia James says occurred over decades.
His daughter, Ivanka, was slated to testify Wednesday.
How did the candidates qualify?
The RNC raised the polling and donor qualification criteria for the third debate. Each 2024 contender had to have a minimum of 70,000 unique donors from at least 20 states and territories and 200 donors from each of those jurisdictions, up from 50,000 donors in the second debate.
The White House hopefuls also had to meet a 4% polling minimum — up from 3% — in either two RNC-recognized national polls or one national poll and one poll from two operate early states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Along with polls and donors, the candidates had to sign a RNC pledge saying they would not participate in any outside debates for the rest of the 2024 election cycle.
Which candidates did not qualify?
Two candidates who qualified for the second debate will not be on stage Wednesday night.
Vice President Mike Pence dropped out of the race after failing to gain traction in the polls and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum failed to meet the 4% polling benchmark.