I thought Nikki Haley did the best, DeSantis was a close second. Wish Tim Scott did better, he was a bit of a nonentity. Didn’t care for Ramaswamy. Chris Christie was surprisingly bad, bordering on awful, lame attempts at humor. Pence was just boring.
Trump still the likely nominee. DeSantis had a little bounce in post-debate polls, Haley had a bigger bounce (2.5% to 0.9%).
Issues most debated, in this order:
- Inflation / getting costs under control
- Controlling immigration
- Beating Biden
- Fighting against the Woke agenda
- Cutting government spending
- Keeping America safe from foreign conflicts/terrorism
- Lowering taxes
- Combatting political extremism
Others mentioned were gun rights, reducing crime/gun violence, fighting election fraud, improving health care, limiting abortion, strengthening education, fighting opiods, climate change, race & racism, unemployment, COVID.