Biggest Winners and Losers From Second Republican Primary Debate

Republican presidential candidates faced off during the second presidential primary debate in Simi Valley, California, Wednesday evening, sparring on a number of topics including crime, immigration and education.

The stakes were high for the seven candidates who qualified for the debate, as each contender sought to break into former President Donald Trump's commanding lead with less than four months until the first votes are cast in the primary election. They stepped up attacks on each other, battling for viral moments to boost their campaign's odds of victory next year.

Notably, Trump skipped the debate, instead opting to go to Detroit to address striking United Auto Workers (UAW) members, a pivotal group in the swing state. The debate continued despite his absence, though his candidacy loomed over his opponents as they sought to draw support from Republican voters.

Meena Bose, the executive dean of Hofstra University's Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs, told Newsweek ahead of the debate that candidates needed to demonstrate their own unique strengths during the debate to make an impact and chip away at Trump's polling lead.

Several low-polling candidates such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum or South Carolina Senator Tim Scott needed a breakout moment, Bose said. Barring a strong performance, these candidates may need to question whether they should stay in the race, she said.

"Burgum, Scott, Christie and Pence, short of some sort of breakout moment, really will have to probably weigh whether staying in the race makes sense. The question is to whether the investment is worth the projected output," she said.

Here is a look at the winners and losers of the debate.

Winner: Donald Trump

Trump skipping the debate, this time speaking to striking auto workers, is forcing the other candidates to compete for second place. And while Christie and DeSantis attacked the former president, other candidates largely steered clear of doing so.

Still, DeSantis showed a new willingness to attack Trump, arguing that he should have attended the debate to defend his record on the economy, including for adding $7 trillion to the national debt as president. It remains to be seen how these attacks will resonate with GOP voters, but he showed a willingness to go after the ex-president that could usher in a new phase of the campaign.

Trump also faced attacks from Christie, who also knocked him for skipping the forum, but his attacks largely fell flat.

Winner: Ron DeSantis

The debate came at a pivotal point for the DeSantis campaign as he seems to rebuild momentum. DeSantis was viewed as the candidate with the best opportunity to beat Trump, following an impressive reelection in Florida. But his polling dwindled in recent weeks as he struggled to catch up to the former president. Bose said the stakes were particularly high for DeSantis, who needed to show that he can build a winning coalition against Trump and compete on a national platform.

DeSantis attacked Trump for skipping the debate, but also for his economic record. He hit Trump's record on the national debt, laying out a vision for a more fiscally conservative plan, a key priority for conservative voters. He showed a new willingness to directly go up against the frontrunner as he seeks to cast the primary as a two-person race.

Meanwhile, he defended his record on several of his most conservative policies as governor, including his firing of progressive prosecutors in Florida and his educational policies, painting himself as the candidate best suited to bring a conservative vision to the entire country.

"In the state of Florida, because of our success, the Democratic Party lies in ruins," he said. "We have won the big fights. We have turned our state into a Republican state. People respond to leadership. I've done it, while others have talked about it."

Losers: The Moderators

The debate moderators—Fox News' Stuart Varney and Dana Perino and Univision's Ilia Calderón—largely failed to prevent the candidates from speaking over each other, allowing them to do so throughout the night. The candidates exchanged several tense moments, frequently going over time and speaking over the moderators.

Meanwhile, Varney also stuttered while introducing his co-moderators at the start of the debate, a moment that garnered attention on social media.

They also faced pushback from the candidates for asking them to vote on who should be "voted off the island." The candidates refused to do so, with DeSantis describing the request as "disrespectful." Christie was the only candidate to say who should drop out, urging Trump to do so.

Winner: Nikki Haley

Former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley garnered praise for her performance during the first debate, leading to a minor polling bump. But she still trails other candidates in polls, meaning she still needed a strong performance in the event.

Heading into the debate, Haley needed to continue to build her momentum off the first debate while continuing to demonstrate her ability to reach a wider audience than GOP primary voters, Bose said.

While Haley did not necessarily have a single moment, her performance was strong, again turning to similar strategies. She resisted moving too far right on the issues, staking at a mainstream Republican perspective on topics such as education and crime that would not be as alienating as the deeply conservative views espoused by other candidates.

Loser: Chris Christie

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's opposition to Trump landed him in a difficult spot for many Republican voters, who continue to support the former president. Therefore, it was no surprise that he again found himself in hostile territory Wednesday evening, and his attacks against the former president fell flat.

He ripped Trump for skipping the debate, again drawing resistance from audience members. He at one point directly addressed the former president, telling him he skipped the debate because he is "afraid of being on this stage and defending" his record—a stunt that sparked boos from some audience members.

Still, he managed to highlight his more conservative stances on issues such as education, voicing support for charter schools, and a conservative stance on immigration, pledging to send the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border on day one.

Winner: Vivek Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy has found support among conservative voters looking for an outsider with business expertise in the Oval Office, but Bose noted that his challenge heading into the debate will be to answer questions about his lack of experience.

After a more contentious first debate, Ramaswamy pitched a more united front with his Republican opponents, praising them as "good people" but still weathered attacks from the other contenders, including Pence, who knocked him for his record of allegedly not voting in presidential elections. Meanwhile, his staunchly conservative policies such as a call for faith-based approaches to crime are likely to land with conservative voters who comprise the primary electorate.

He also received praise from the audience for voicing sympathy for striking United Auto Workers union members, urging them to strike in front of the White House over Biden's "disastrous economic policies."

Ramaswamy faced attacks from Haley over his campaign's use of TikTok, the social media platform that has raised national security concerns over its ties to the China Communist Party (CCP)'s leadership. His campaign has faced criticisms for using the platform to reach young people. Haley told him she feels "a little bit dumber" for what he says.

Still, these attacks also signaled that other candidates view him as a threat to potentially place second in the primary, as polls show his appeal among conservative voters.

Losers: Tim Scott, Doug Burgum, Mike Pence

Scott, Pence and Burgum all struggled to stand out among the crowd, but needed strong performances to potentially justify their campaigns moving forward, Bose said.

Scott, for his part, had a stronger start to the night, pledging that the American dream is "alive" for everyone in the country, "whether you're in the inner city of Chicago or the rural parts of Iowa. America and the dream."

However, as the night went on, he faded to the background. The scene was not dissimilar to his performance in the first debate, in which his performance underwhelmed political observers despite not having any major mistakes.

Pence, who has distanced himself from Trump on the campaign trail, has struggled in polls despite expectations that he could emerge as a potential anti-Trump candidate. He largely withstood attacks from other candidates but did not necessarily do anything to move the needle in the polls.

Burgum was in a similar boat. He needed a breakout moment during the debate but didn't stand out among other candidates. His campaign has consistently lower numbers than other contenders, and he struggled to make an impression with many Republican voters during the August debate.