Republican debate live: five GOP candidates take stage in Miami for third debate – live | Republicans

The third debate of the 2024 Republican presidential primary has kicked off in Miami.

Hosted by NBC News, tonight’s event features Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, senator Tim Scott and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Polls show that none of these candidates are leading the race, or even close to it. The frontrunner is Donald Trump, who has maintained his lead all year, but has not attended any debates – tonight’s included.

Tonight’s debate audience of about 1,700 people consists mostly of Republican party members and officials from many states. No public tickets were made available.

Several of those heading for the debate hall spoke of the need for unity among the candidates.

“After the disappointing results in Kentucky and Virginia, we have to get back to talking about the issues and policies,” Rafael Garcia, a “probable” Chris Christie supporter from Miami, said. “Everything we hear is about Trump, or DeSantis, and how they’re fighting with each other. We want to hear what plans they have for us, not tearing each other down all the time.”

Garcia said he believed either Christie, or Nikki Haley, would represent the best chance for Republicans to oust Joe Biden from the White House next year.

“I don’t really think Chris Christie can win the nomination, there are too many Trump people who are against him. But Haley has been doing well. I’d want it to be her if it’s between her and Trump.”

Sandy Anderson, from Delray Beach, Florida, is a supporter of Ron DeSantis. “He’s done such a good job as our governor, he deserves the chance to lead the country,” she said.

“I don’t understand why people don’t like him. He’s the strongest of all the candidates.”

A handful of protestors, some Republican supporters, some Democratic, have shown up outside Miami’s Adrienne Arsht performing arts center, where Republican presidential hopefuls (minus frontrunner Donald Trump) will face off in the third primary debate a little later this evening.

Miami native Bob Kunst is a regular attendee at political events in the city. Tonight he’s here calling on the candidates to declare their support for Israel, and denounce antisemitism. “I’m a Democrat, but Joe Biden isn’t getting it done, and I don’t think any of the Republicans here tonight have the balls,” he says.

Kunst worries that members of his synagogue who planned to protest with him won’t be able to find him. “The police have moved me twice,” he says, “from the front of the building to the side and now out back where there’s nobody around. It’s wrong.”

Donald Trump supporter Chauncey O’Connor said he thought about attending the former president’s rival rally tonight a short distance away in Hialeah, but instead wanted to “shake the hand of friendship” with those rooting for the challengers.

“I’ve been flipped off a few times,” he admits. “I just show them the peace sign.”

However tonight’s debate goes for Ron DeSantis, it’s unlikely to touch the heights of exactly one year ago, when Florida’s hard right governor soared to re-election by a 20 point margin, a fact he has been keen to brag about on the presidential campaign trail.

It’s possible, of course, that 8 November 2022 marked the pinnacle of DeSantis’s political career. There’s evidence his extremist agenda as governor since, which includes passing a six-week abortion ban, restricting Black voters’ rights, attacking the LGBTQ+ community and going after the state’s largest private employer, Disney, in a feud over his “Don’t Say Gay” law, has alienated voters both in Florida and nationally.

A poll released Tuesday showed DeSantis has fallen even further behind Donald Trump in Florida, mirroring his cratering support across the country.

That, and the shortening window to stage a comeback before January’s first primary contest in Iowa, is why he needs a stellar performance this evening here in Miami. Polling suggests Nikki Haley has tied him for second place to Trump in Iowa, and left him for dust in New Hampshire.

Expect DeSantis to face some searching questions tonight from Haley, particularly over the Israel-Hamas war, and his record in the governor’s mansion.

Donald Trump is skipping this evening’s debate of Republican presidential candidates, but won’t be far from its Miami venue, the Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts.

The former president is instead scheduled to hold a rally in the suburb of Hialeah, where he is looking to court Hispanic voters in a state that supported his candidacy both in 2016 and 2020, and will be crucial in his campaign for the White House next year.

Trump’s rally is scheduled to begin at 7pm.

NBC News is hosting this evening’s Republican debate, which begins at 8pm in Miami.

The five-candidate showdown will be moderated by Lester Holt, anchor of NBC Nightly News, Kristen Welker, moderator of Meet the Press, and Hugh Hewitt, a prominent conservative radio host.

NBC will show the debate live here, as well as on major streaming platforms.

Fox News hosted the first debate in Milwaukee, while the second debate in Simi Valley, California was co-hosted by Fox News, Fox Business Network and Univision.

Good evening, US politics blog readers, and thank you for joining us as we cover the third debate of the Republican presidential nomination process. This evening at 8pm eastern time in Miami, five candidates – Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, senator Tim Scott and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie – will take the stage for yet another unusual debate among the GOP’s presidential aspirants. What makes tonight’s faceoff, and the two others that came before, so strange is the absence of the far-and-away frontrunner for the nomination, Donald Trump. He wasn’t there for the first debate in Milwaukee, nor for the second debate in Simi Valley, California, and won’t be in Miami for tonight’s showdown, and paid no apparent penalty for it – poll after poll shows him with a massive lead for the nomination.

But no ballots have been cast yet and nothing is decided, meaning there is plenty of reason to pay attention to what these five Republicans have to say. Here’s a few things we will be looking out for:

• Abortion proved once again to be the GOP’s Achilles heel in off-year elections held yesterday. Voters in Virginia handed the state legislature to Democrats in a rebuke of Republican governor Glenn Youngkin’s push to restrict the procedure, while red-leaning Ohio voted to protect the right in the state constitution. What will the five candidates, all abortion foes of various stripes, have to say about that?

• Haley has seen a pop in recent polling, coming in striking distance of the second-place position currently held by DeSantis. Will that intensify the rivalry between the two candidates, or expose Haley, who served under Trump, to new attacks?

• Israel’s place as a cause celebre for Republicans has been renewed ever since Hamas’s deadly 7 October attack. What will the candidates say about their policy towards the country, particularly when it comes to the ongoing and controversial invasion of Gaza?