Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley are set to square off in yet another race-for-second-place debate next week that will be hosted by CNN, but don't count on it to provide any substantive discussion to better inform voters as they prepare to head to the polls.

Wednesday's debate is billed as the last warm-up before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15. CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are scheduled to moderate the debate.

BIDEN STARING DOWN 'FIVE-ALARM FIRE' WITH MINORITY VOTERS. CAN HE WIN BACK SUPPORT?

None of the prior debates have done much to shake up the dynamics of the Republican primary. Don't count on this one doing much either. Former President Donald Trump is still miles ahead of both candidates in the early states and nationwide, and now the two candidates with any chance, albeit remote, of challenging him one-on-one are about to participate in a debate that will be watched mostly by the average CNN viewer and political junkies.

Whatever one thinks of Tapper and Bash, the two moderators are not going to ask Haley and DeSantis questions that are of interest to the Republican base — they are more likely to ask questions that appeal to CNN's viewership.

A Republican presidential debate that caters to the concerns and interests of Republican primary voters would involve discussions about the importance of standing up for parental rights, protecting the unborn, fighting against efforts to sterilize children, and reining in an unaccountable federal bureaucracy. But don't count on Tapper or Bash asking any questions related to these matters in a way that is consistent with how Republican voters see them.

In prior debates, most notably the debate hosted by Fox Business, which invited Univision host Ilia Calderón to co-moderate, candidates were asked questions that have absolutely no resonance with Republican primary voters. This included a question to former Vice President Mike Pence about what he would do to address increases in violence against LGBT persons.

Of the four Republican debates that have occurred so far, there has only been one in which candidates were pressed on their positions by one another and the moderators in a way that appealed to the concerns and interests of the Republican base: the December debate hosted by NewsNation that featured Megyn Kelly and the Washington Free Beacon's Eliana Johnson alongside the host network's Elizabeth Vargas as moderators.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Unlike the moderators that came before them, Kelly, Johnson, and Vargas pushed the candidates to articulate how they would ensure parents know what is happening to their child at school and how they would restore trust in the FBI and the Department of Justice after the Biden administration has used it to investigate pro-life activists and parents concerned about critical race theory.

These are topics that have become major concerns for conservative voters across the country. But Haley and DeSantis probably won't have a chance to explain what substantive reforms have to be made to the FBI and the DOJ to restore public trust, or whether parents should be made aware if a school is orchestrating a gender transition for their child in secret. Those just won't come up in a debate hosted by CNN.