2024 Republican Party presidential debates and forums
The RNC announced on June 20 that the first Republican presidential debate will take place at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23.
[2] It was announced on August 1 that the second debate would take place on September 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
P Present A Absent N Not invited W Withdrawn The first Republican primary debate was aired by Fox News and held from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Central Time Zone on August 23, 2023, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"[67] Perry Johnson called them "ridiculous"[68] and began selling one dollar "I stand with Tucker"[69] and "I identify as Non-Bidenary" T-shirts on Facebook,[70] counting each sale as a campaign donation.
Similarly, Ramaswamy's campaign ran Facebook ads asking people for one dollar to "secure a prime spot" at the debate.
[72] Doug Burgum claimed he met the donor threshold on July 19[37] in part due to offering $20 gift cards for $1 donations.
[73] On July 23, Politico reported that six candidates had unofficially qualified for the debate following the publication of two state polls from Fox News: Christie, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Scott, and Trump.
[76] Trump stated in an interview on Newsmax on August 9 that he would not pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee, one of the requirements to qualify for the debate.
[77] On August 14, the Super PAC supporting Suarez claimed that he unofficially qualified for the debate by attaining four national polls, with one percent in each one, though his campaign stated that there was "no announcement at this time".
[84] On August 21, the RNC invited eight candidates to the first debate: Burgum, Christie, DeSantis, Haley, Hutchinson, Pence, Ramaswamy, and Scott.
[92][93][94] Others pointed to Pence as the debate's winner, pointing to his successful defense of his actions surrounding January 6 as well as appealing to traditional conservatives on the issues of foreign policy and abortion, while some cited Haley as the winner of the debate, arguing she possessed a relatively calm stance on issues and appealed to moderate voters.
[101] The second Republican primary debate was held on September 27, 2023, in Simi Valley, California, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library[3] and hosted by Fox Business, Rumble and Univision.
[113] Six candidates unofficially qualified for the debate on August 15, according to Politico: Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Haley, Scott, Christie.
[84] On September 25, the RNC invited seven candidates to the second debate: Burgum, Christie, DeSantis, Haley, Pence, Ramaswamy, and Scott.
[138] Four unnamed RNC sources told The Dispatch that the University of Alabama would host the third debate in "late October or early November".
[31] On September 22, Politico reported that DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, and Trump unofficially met the polling and donor qualifications for the third debate.
[152] A CNN opinion article labeled Christie as an ‘underdog’ and praised him for answering the moderators’ questions more directly and for acknowledging Trump's legal issues.
[153] Most of Politico's panel agreed that Haley "had the best night" (while Adam Wren believed it was Christie), while they generally thought that the debate was unlikely to move the needle.
[154] Building America's Future ran an ad during the debate which claimed that an “E-ZPass lane for whales in the Gulf.” implemented by Joe Biden was responsible for high gas prices.
[19] On November 3, Geoffrey Skelley of FiveThirtyEight reported that DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, and Trump had met the polling and donor requirements for the debate.
[167] On November 15, Christie claimed that he had met both the donor and polling requirement for the debate in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Haley and DeSantis saw the largest decrease in percentage considering, although this portion of the poll included Republicans who did not watch the debate.
The fifth Republican primary debate took place in Des Moines, Iowa on January 10, 2024, and was hosted by CNN and moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
[201] Candidates qualified by having two national or two New Hampshire polls at 10% from a list of approved pollsters or by finishing in the top three in the Iowa caucus.
[80] According to their tracker and analysis of the polling data, Johnson qualified for the first debate;[66] he issued a press release detailing the timeline, sequence of events, and correspondence with the RNC and his campaign.
NBC correspondent Dasha Burns posted a picture on social media that was on the security desk that detailed who was not allowed at the debate venue.
However, Scott's campaign insisted that a "little-noticed" poll conducted in September by YouGov for progressive outlet The Liberal Patriot had him at four percent support.
[225] FiveThirtyEight believed that the poll would not qualify as the screening question used for determining likely primary voters "resulted in the survey including a large number of Democrats in the sample".
The president of the foundation, Bob Vander Plaats, indicated the same day that the RNC would allow the forum to go forward, with no repercussions for candidates who attend.
[234] Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Sky News Australia on December 3 that he was skeptical Christie qualified.
