By Katelyn Caralle, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com In Tuscaloosa, Alabama
12:31 06 Dec 2023, updated 14:11 06 Dec 2023
Republican 2024 candidates are in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the fourth presidential primary debate at 8pm on Wednesday to stake their claim as the top challenger to Donald Trump.
The former president is up by 40 points in some polls, leaving the rest of the field to battle for second with less than six weeks until the crucial Iowa caucuses.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, biotech entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie qualified to debate, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced on Monday evening.
The showdown is the smallest yet of the 2024 primary election and the qualifications set by the RNC to make the stage were the most strict so far.
It is also expected to be the most tense as fired-up presidential hopefuls go head-to-head in a race largely seen as a battle for second place behind former President Donald Trump, who is dominating in nearly ever single poll.
DailyMail.com breaks down what to watch Wednesday evening and how to tune-in for the face-off.
FOURTH REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATE DETAILS
NewsNation is hosting the fourth debate on December 6 at the University of Alabama’s Frank Moody Music Building in Tuscaloosa. This is the first time a presidential primary debate is being held in the deep red state.
Moderators are former Fox News anchor and current SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly, NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas and Washington Free Beacon Editor-in-Chief Eliana Johnson.
The debate will kick off at 8pm and conclude at 10pm EST. It will be live-streamed on NewsNation’s website NewsNationNow.com and on Rumble – which emerged in recent years as an anti-censorship alternative to YouTube.
For Eastern and Central time zones, Nexstar’s The CW will broadcast the debate. Viewers in Mountain and Pacific time zones can tune-in with their local CW affiliates to watch the debate from 7-9pm MT and 8-10pm PT.
Additionally, an audio broadcast of the debate is available on SiriusXM’s Triumph channel 111.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE DEBATE AND WHICH CANDIDATES MADE THE CUT
To make the stage, candidates faced their largest uphill battle yet, with Gov. Christie nearly missing out.
Candidates were required to amass 80,000 donors, with at least 200 donors each from 20 different states or territories.
Each contender also had to receive 6 percent support in two different national polls. Alternatively, they could earn 6 percent in one national poll and 6 percent in two separate state-wide polls in an early primary contest state – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina.
Christie told radio host and third debate moderator Hugh Hewitt on November 15 that he had met the qualifications to debate. But there were concerns the polls he was referencing were not approved by the Republican National Committee, which organizes the events.
The RNC confirmed on Monday that Christie would be joining DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who failed to qualify for the third and fourth debate, announced Monday he was suspending his campaign.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott dropped out just days after participating in the third debate in Miami, Florida, in early November.
Between the second and third debates, former Vice President Mike Pence also ended his run.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson only qualified for the first debate, but has not put an end to his candidacy.
Meanwhile, Dallas-area businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley has not made the stage once, but is still holding onto his bid.
WHAT IS DONALD TRUMP DOING?
Trump has far exceeded the qualifications to debate for every event, but has refused to show up.
The ex-president says that the debates are beneath him considering the massive polling lead he holds above the rest of the field.
He also won’t sign an RNC pledge to support the eventual 2024 GOP nominee, which candidates are required to agree to in order to take the stage.
Trump has spent all the debates so far running his own events.
For the first debate, he sat-down with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for a wide-ranging interview that began airing just five minutes before eight of his competitors took the stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In September for the second debate, Trump was in Wisconsin speaking to auto workers picketing for better pay, hours and benefits while seven others were in Simi Valley, California debating at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
The latest in Miami, Florida last month saw Trump holding a rally just 15 minutes down the road the night of the debate.
This time, it’s unclear what Trump is doing the night of the debate, but the day before, on Tuesday, his pre-taped town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity will air at 9pm.
Speculation ensued that Trump would finally show on Wednesday after DailyMail.com obtained an image of the debate stage last month showing hosting network NewsNation was preparing five podiums on the debate stage at the University of Alabama.
But images since then have shown there are only four podiums on stage for DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy and Christie.
CANDIDATES’ PRE-DEBATE PREPARATIONS
In the lead-up to the latest debate, DeSantis completed the ‘full Grassley’ in Iowa, meaning he visited all 99 of the early primary contest state’s counties before the caucuses.
But in response to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ post lauding DeSantis’ feat, Ramaswamy wrote that he will actually be visiting all of the counties at least two times.
‘Some candidates boast about doing the ‘Full Grassley’ – visiting all 99 counties in Iowa,’ Ramaswamy wrote Monday on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Proud to announce I’ll be the first presidential candidate in history to do all 99 counties *twice over* in less than a year.’
‘We’ll hit it by first week of January,’ he previewed. ‘We’ll lead America with the same effort that we’re running this campaign.’
Ramaswamy was also the only candidate that held a pre-debate event in Alabama on Tuesday evening with a reception at the Ross Bridge Resort in Birmingham – about an hour from the debate location in Tuscaloosa.
DeSantis, in the lead-up to the debate, also participated in a one-on-one debate with California Gov. Gavin Newsom just six days prior where the two governors presented to Fox News’ Sean Hannity their conflicting approaches to governing their states.
‘Ron DeSantis dominated Gavin Newsom last week by vigorously articulating why his conservative record and vision for the future represents the best way forward for the country when contrasted with the Biden-Newsom agenda,’ DeSantis’ communications director Andrew Romeo told DailyMail.com.
He added: ‘We are now eager to go back to the primary and remind Republicans why Ron DeSantis is the only one on stage who can defeat Donald Trump for the nomination and Joe Biden for the White House to ensure those liberal policies are reversed and America’s revival gets kicked off.’
The Florida governor was also the biggest spender on ads so far in the 2024 primary race with his campaign and PACs putting up $46 million in television, radio and digit ads, according to a Financial Times analysis.
He zoned-in on Iowa, spending nearly half to persuade Republicans in the first-in-the-nation primary contest state to caucus for him on January 15.
While DeSantis spent the most, he has also been the most targeted candidate with his competitors and their affiliated entities spending $26.7 million on attack ads against him.
Haley’s $16.4 million spending in Iowa is far dwarfed by DeSantis’ $20.6 million in the state.
POLLING AHEAD OF THE DEBATE
The debate’s hosting network NewsNation released a poll this week showing 60 percent of Republican voters still preferring Trump as their top choice for the 2024 nominee.
Meanwhile, DeSantis came in distant second with 11 percent and Haley in third with 10 percent. Ramaswamy came in fourth with 6 percent and Christie with just 3 percent.
The NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll shows nearly two-thirds of Republicans – 64 percent – think Trump is still the best candidate to fix the economy, which is one of, if not the largest, issue to voters going into the 2024 election.
‘The clear takeaway here is that Trump’s support is not only very broad but very deep,’ said NewsNation’s political and economic contributor Mick Mulvaney, previously a Trump administration acting White House chief of staff.
The latest is consistent with national polling averages tracked by FiveThirtyEight, which show Trump with 59.2 percent support in the 2024 Republican primary.
In nearly all national polls Trump comes in first, DeSantis second, Haley third, Ramaswamy fourth and Christie fifth.
Polls in Iowa in recent months, however, have shown DeSantis and Haley tying in second place behind Trump.
Besides those early primary states, Trump is also ahead in some battleground swing state key to clinching the Republican nomination, including Georgia and Arizona.
In both swing states, Trump is better poised than Haley and DeSantis to win, according to an exclusive DailyMail.com poll.
Outside of the primary race, the polling shows that Trump is also ahead of President Joe Biden in the same two states.
Arizona and Georgia are two of the most closely watched and fought over states in the year ahead of 2024 considering their results could determine who takes a victory in the general election.
In Arizona, Trump is ahead of Biden by 5 percent and in Georgia he is up by 3 points.
Biden, however, leads his likely 2024 competitor in swing state of Wisconsin by 5 percent.
In 2016, Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin all handed their Electoral College votes to Trump before flipping to Biden in 2020.
‘The fourth debate is another fantastic opportunity for our Republican candidates to share our winning agenda with the American people,’ RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement announcing the lineup.
‘President Reagan was the first sitting president to visit the University of Alabama nearly 40 years ago, just before cruising to a landslide victory in 1984, and I’m thrilled to return our conservative message to Tuscaloosa on Wednesday night,’ she said ahead of the debate.
