The third Republican debate in Miami, Florida, saw five candidates battle for two hours on stage for the affection of GOP voters.

The first public event since the war in the Middle East broke out on October 7, the debate focused heavily on foreign policy issues but also addressed abortion, the fentanyl crisis and the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump.

At moments it proved heated, with candidates exchanging blows on policy issues and their record.

Here are the Telegraph’s winners and losers.

Vivek Ramaswamy was widely considered to be the breakout star of the first Republican debate in August after he launched into attacks against other candidates.

Tonight, with his campaign failing to convert that momentum into a lead over either Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis, he seemed to adopt the same strategy.

His opening address saw him call for the resignation of the Republican National Committee, describe the party leadership as a “cancer” and attack NBC host Kristen Welker as a member of the “corrupt media”.

Later, in an apparent fumble, he appeared to call Volodymyr Zelensky a “Nazi”, and was booed by the crowd for his comments about Nikki Haley’s daughter, for which she called him “scum”. Frank Luntz, the veteran American pollster, said that was the moment that he lost the debate.

Mr Ramaswamy’s policy ideas are perhaps the most different to any of the other candidates, and he gave interesting responses on increasing the social security budget by reducing defence spending and what he described as “sexual responsibility for men”.

But while it made for entertaining television, the 38-year-old entrepreneur’s pugnacious performance made him seem somewhat desperate for airtime and distracted from his policy interventions.

The Florida governor was on home turf tonight in Miami, addressing an audience that contained many of his own voters.

Despite a somewhat lacklustre opening speech, Mr DeSantis did draw some audience support for his tough stance on Hamas, who he described as “Terrorists…massacring innocent people”, and fentanyl importers, who he said he would shoot “stone dead” trying to bring the drug into the US.

On Donald Trump, the so-called “elephant not in the room”, Mr DeSantis repeated his previous criticism of the former president for not turning up for the debate but reined back on other issues, perhaps sensing that many voters in the room still support him.

He also appeared to have taken on board the criticism that his previous appearances were wooden, referring twice to specific voters he had spoken to in an attempt to connect with the audience with similar issues. As the frontrunner of the five on stage, he clearly held his own.

Nonetheless, in a debate heavily-focused on foreign policy issues, Mr DeSantis’s answers were heavy on rhetoric and light on policy. Asked about the Ukraine war, a key issue for Republican voters, he talked instead about the insecurity of the US southern border.

Nikki Haley provided the standout moment of the night – calling Vivek Ramaswamy “scum” for attacking her daughter’s use of TikTok. She also drew the largest applause for her response on abortion, which called for individual states to decide whether to ban it.

The former South Carolina governor, who has given extensive media interviews since the last debate, reused a lot of her previous lines and did not appear to break much new ground.

But in a debate that contained more questions on foreign policy than any other issue, she stood out with an extensive use of statistics and examples from her experience as US ambassador to the UN.

Her response on the war with Russia  – unpopular with many Republican voters – was that Ukraine is a “freedom-loving, pro-American country” and should be armed to the teeth with American weapons to counter the influence of Vladimir Putin. On Venezuela, China and Taiwan, she had more detailed responses than her competitors.

However, some of the attacks from previous debates did stick. She was again attacked for giving land to a Chinese company in South Carolina and going on to work for a defence contractor after leaving the Government. In a field of candidates where few want to seem members of the “establishment”, Ms Haley came across as the most institutionalised.

Chris Christie is an outsider for the Republican nomination and did not cause much of a stir on stage as he was largely left alone by the other candidates.

His foreign policy responses were designed to make him appear the most responsible candidate on the stage, as he shied away from harsh language to focus on how he would deal with the diplomatic picture in the Middle East.

The new Jersey governor’s harshest criticism was reserved for Donald Trump, who he said was not fit to be the candidate because he would be spending most of next year in court, and for TikTok, which he said was “polluting” the minds of young Americans and would be banned in his first week in the White House.

His response on the issue of abortion was almost the same as Nikki Haley’s, but did not attract the same support from the audience.

On Ukraine, he told the audience the US should continue to fund Kyiv’s forces, telling the audience: “This is the price we pay for being the leaders of the free world, and the fact is this alliance is not just with Russia and China.” 

Perhaps tellingly, he added: “Governor Haley knows this.” Of the two candidates on the moderate wing on Wednesday night, he clearly made less of an impact.

Tim Scott has failed to make any real impact in the debate. As the lowest-polling candidate on stage, he did not attract many attacks from the others, nor dish out any of his own.

Instead, he quoted the Bible in response to questions on China, gave a lukewarm answer on Ukraine and failed to come up with any pithy phrases of his own to address the moderators’ questions.

Perhaps his best moment came when he threatened to deport pro-Hamas protesters from American universities, but the heavy focus on foreign policy did not appear to play to his strengths.

Mr Scott’s comments mainly targeted two key groups – black voters and the Christian Right. In his opening address, he declared: “The great opportunity party is now winning back African-American voters and Hispanic voters because we are working on a foundation based on faith.”

In response to a question on abortion, the South Carolina senator gave a strongly pro-life answer, telling the audience: “It is in our nation’s best interest, and frankly I think it’s unethical, unethical and immoral to allow for abortions up until the day of birth.”

But with other voters drawing blood on foreign affairs, Mr Scott’s call to “restore faith in our Christian values” felt quite out of place.