Two Republicans will try on Wednesday to present themselves as the best alternative to Donald Trump for the American presidential election, during a televised face-to-face less than a week before the start of the primaries, while the former president is a favorite despite his legal troubles.
Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, well ahead of Trump in the polls for the Republican nomination, are playing a bit of a double-take during this last debate before the choice of Republican voters in Iowa.
Because a good electoral performance on Monday, in this small state where the stakes are high, would serve as a springboard for them to hope to catch Donald Trump and defy the predictions.
The other Republican candidates are entering the race with so little momentum that they haven’t even met the criteria set by the party to participate in this debate in Des Moines.
Donald Trump, for his part, once again chose not to take part, believing that he had nothing to gain by exposing himself to a possible barrage of criticism.
But he once again took care to organize counterprogramming, with a campaign event in the same city broadcast by the conservative channel Fox News while his two rivals debate on CNN.
This attitude earned him a dig from his former ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who judged in a press release that “it was time for Donald Trump to show up”. “As the field of debaters shrinks, it becomes harder for him to hide,” assured the former governor of South Carolina.
DeSantis has also criticized him on this point, recently saying: “He comes to give a half hour or an hour of speeches and leaves, rather than listening to the people of Iowa, answering their questions.”
Springboard
Still, the former president is probably reassured by a new poll (Suffolk University / USA TODAY) indicating that 51% of Republican voters do not plan to watch this debate, a sign that the proposed poster may lack a little flavor for their tastes.
According to poll aggregator RealClearPolitics, Trump leads the way in Iowa with 52.3% of voting intentions, far ahead of Haley and DeSantis each at around 16%.
Nationally, the businessman is credited with 51.5%.
His lead does not weaken despite the legal proceedings against him, the calendar of which is almost intertwined with that of the primaries. On the contrary, the tycoon has integrated indictments and trials into his campaign strategy, going so far as to use his mugshot on mugs and t-shirts.
On Tuesday, he was before the federal appeals court in Washington which is examining his request to benefit from criminal immunity as a former president. And on Thursday, he will again be before the New York court which is trying him in a civil case for suspicion of fraud in the management of the Trump Organization.
Once presented as a serious threat to Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis never managed to emerge.
So much so that he now finds himself trying to stay in contact with Haley, the candidate who has the most momentum, apart from Trump, and his future almost necessarily involves a very solid result in Iowa.
For Nikki Haley, a good performance in Iowa would be an ideal springboard towards the next election, on January 23 in New Hampshire, where independent voters can vote for the Republican primaries. The latter could favor him more than Trump, potentially tightening the race.
Without running a perfect campaign, Mme Haley has enough support, money raised and good numbers in the polls to now face attacks from Trump and his allies, who had ignored her until then.