Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis managed to avoid a pile-on as he protects his No. 2 position in the Republican presidential race and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley forced the political world to take them seriously in the pack chasing former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination.
Those were the key takeaways from a late-night GOP brawl in Milwaukee that featured schoolyard taunts among an eight-candidate slate but did not include the front-runner, who was reporting to a Georgia jail Thursday for a criminal booking.
Nearly three in 10 persons said Mr. Ramaswamy “won” the first presidential primary debate, taking top honors in a J.L. Partners poll after the debate. He drew 28% of votes, compared to 27% for Mr. DeSantis and 13% for former Vice President Mike Pence, who flexed his experience and presented a fiercer-than-normal side of himself.
A live Drudge poll also put Mr. Ramaswamy on top, followed by Ms. Haley and Mr. DeSantis as of mid-afternoon on Thursday.
“DeSantis did not receive the bashing from his opponents that many had expected. While some may say he didn’t break out from the crowd, he also did not damage himself irreparably and remains a contender,” said Susan MacManus, a politics professor emerita at the University of South Florida. “Vivek helped himself in terms of getting attention — fresh face, lots of energy — [and] calling attention to the need for a new generation of leaders was very effective.”
She said Ms. Haley, the only woman on stage, made an impression by staking out positions on climate change and abortion that might appeal to younger voters and suburban women, voting blocs the GOP desperately needs to win back the White House.
The breakout stars want to preserve their momentum heading into the second debate on Sept. 27 in California. But the political oxygen supply will dwindle for GOP rivals as Mr. Trump’s legal woes dominate the headlines.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he doesn’t think Mr. Trump can qualify for a return to the White House, citing 14th Amendment prohibitions on leading an insurrection, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie urged GOP voters not to “normalize” the ex-president’s behavior, saying it was beneath the presidency. Their comments drew boos.
There was little sense that the rivals posed a direct threat to the front-runner, who’s defied political gravity by using criminal indictments to his advantage and sat for a taped interview with Tucker Carlson that got more than 100 million views on social media late Wednesday.
Mr. Trump holds a 40-point polling lead over his closest rivals, on average, and drama around his Georgia arrest on Thursday quickly displaced mainstream news coverage on the prior day’s debate.
“Don’t be fooled. Trumpism won the debate. It was evident and it became even more clear when most of the participants raised their hands to say they’d support the former president even if convicted,” former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman wrote in a fundraising pitch for the Forward Party, a centrist third-party option.
When Mr. Trump wasn’t the topic, contenders made waves by staking out positions on major issues such as the war in Ukraine and what to do about abortion as Democrats use new restrictions as a political cudgel against the GOP.
Mr. Ramaswamy drew cheers with his hard position against new U.S. aid for Ukraine, though it prompted a memorable rebuke from Ms. Haley that is earning replays: “You have no foreign policy experience and it shows.”
Despite the rookie treatment, Mr. Ramaswamy gave as good as he got, earning him swift praise from voter panels and Mr. Trump, as he rises in the polls and pledges to give America a new, younger identity.
“Ramaswamy reminded me of a much younger Trump who tried to frame his political inexperience as an asset while also bragging about his successful businesses,” said Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan.
Ms. Haley, meanwhile, gained notice by saying climate change is real, even if tackling it requires cooperation from nations like China, and that a national approach to abortion will require consensus among the American people.
“Haley did very well and exceeded expectations,” Ms. MacManus said. “What is striking is how little attention is being given by the media to her comments about abortion, which many Republican women will concur with — focus on areas of agreement.”
Ms. Haley is trying to lift her single-digit polling numbers, while Mr. Ramaswamy wants to maintain a remarkable surge that has him closing in on Mr. DeSantis, who’s occupied the second position since the start of the race.
The former president gave Mr. Ramaswamy high marks for saying that Mr. Trump was the best president of the 21st century.
“This answer gave Vivek Ramaswamy a big WIN in the debate because of a thing called TRUTH. Thank you Vivek!” Mr. Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social.
The DeSantis team insists the primary remains a two-man race and said the governor achieved his objective in Milwaukee.
“Ron DeSantis was the clear winner and proved that he is ready to beat Joe Biden and serve as America’s 47th president. The debate highlighted that DeSantis is the only candidate with the vision to reverse our nation’s decline and revive the American Dream,” the campaign said in a Thursday email to supporters.
Others aren’t so sure, pointing to Mr. DeSantis’s relative lack of speaking time compared to his upstart rivals.
“Governor DeSantis was not very visible in the debate so did not maintain his hold as the top alternative to Trump. Both Ramaswamy and Haley stood out and advanced their primary prospects,” said Darrell West, the director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “I expect Ramaswamy and Haley to rise in the polls and for DeSantis to drop over his lackluster performance.”
Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, told Fox News on Thursday that some candidates got more airtime because they loved to interrupt others. Moving forward, he said he would “provide the American people with an adult in the room having a conversation about their priorities.”
The J.L. Partners poll put Mr. Scott at 8%, or slightly ahead of Ms. Haley, at 7%.
Mr. Pence’s third-place finish in that poll came after he defended his push to restrict abortion after 15 weeks, and his decision to defy Mr. Trump and certify the 2020 electoral-vote count.
“Pence deliberately chose a more aggressive debate playbook to ensure his voice was more prominently featured among the crowded stage of candidates,” said Mr. Kall, who attended the debate in person. “This ensured he received the most amount of speaking time from the moderators, but being involved in several combative exchanges also carries risk. The large and energetic crowd did not positively respond to these tactics and Pence appeared to languish behind some of the other more popular candidates.”
GOP candidate Steve Laffey, the former mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, did not qualify for the debate but said Thursday he was disappointed by the lack of pushback on Mr. Trump. He said Mr. DeSantis needs to make a move.
“Sir, if you’re polling second,” he said, “perhaps you should set your eyes on the man ahead of you.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.