A fourth Republican debate without Trump

(Tuscaloosa, Washington) And 4! Republican candidates for the 2024 US presidential election began to face each other on Wednesday during a new debate, snubbed by favorite Donald Trump 40 days before the first party primaries.

As he had done for the three previous broadcasts, the former president chose not to participate in this televised meeting, due according to him to his dizzying lead in the polls.

Gathered in Alabama, a very conservative state in the south of the country, four of his Republican opponents, three men and a woman, will try to capture a little of his light.

This show is an important step on the long road to the White House. Starting January 15, Republican candidates for the 2024 election will face off in a series of primaries: they will start in Iowa, a rural state in the Midwest, before moving on to polls in New York in a few weeks. Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina and a big electoral deadline in early March.

The winner of these primaries, officially dubbed by the Republican Party in July, will face the Democratic candidate, most likely President Joe Biden, in the election next November.

Despite his four indictments, Donald Trump is currently crushing the race among the Republicans, hovering around 61% in voting intentions. He relies on a base which remains largely loyal to him and supports him staunchly in his troubles with the law.

Haley, at the heart of the attacks

How can we exist in the face of the former president, who attracts all the political and media attention with his declarations, his invectives and his legal disputes? This is the question that haunts the four Republican candidates present Wednesday on the NewsNation set.

Starting with Nikki Haley, 51, the new darling of the American right, whose performances were particularly noted during the three previous debates.

The candidacy of this former governor of South Carolina is increasingly appealing to the establishment and very wealthy Republican donors – a significant help in a country where political campaigns are won with billions of dollars.

The former American ambassador to the UN under Donald Trump notably distinguished herself with a more moderate speech than her rivals on abortion, well aware that her party has had a series of electoral disappointments on this subject since the cancellation of protection constitutionality of the right to abortion in the country.

This theme is likely to weigh heavily during the American presidential election.

In opinion polls, the fifty-year-old is now hot on the heels of Ron DeSantis, once seen as the party’s rising star, but whose popularity has plummeted in recent months.

The governor of Florida, taking shocking positions on LGBT+ issues or immigration, is accused of a lack of charisma. He is now behind Donald Trump by more than 48 points, according to poll aggregator RealClearPolitics.

The whole challenge for Ron DeSantis will therefore be to stop Nikki Haley’s dynamic, to prevent her candidacy from completely collapsing before the first ballots even begin.

Climate skeptic entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, one of the few to criticize Donald Trump openly, complete the line-up for this debate.