On Sept. 27, six Republican presidential hopefuls took part in the second Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Notably absent from the debate stage was former President Donald Trump, who instead held a rally in Detroit opposite President Biden’s visit to striking auto workers in the city.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ underwhelming performance in the first Republican debate loomed over his visit to California. As the leading runner-up candidate, currently polling at 12.5%, according to FiveThirtyEight, expectations for the governor were high. In the first debate, in a sheepish show of deference to the former president, DeSantis affirmed that he would support Trump if the former president became the Republican presidential nominee, despite Trump having publicly attacked DeSantis on numerous occasions. In the second debate, however, DeSantis took an uncharacteristically offensive strategy towards Trump, calling out the former president’s decision to skip the debates. According to the Washington Post, DeSantis argued that “Donald Trump should be on the stage to defend his record.” In addition to DeSantis, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized Trump’s decision to skip the debates by suggesting that the former president should be addressed as “Donald Duck.” However, despite the combined efforts of DeSantis and Christie, attacks on the former president made minimal impact on poll standings, as Trump holds his majority polling percentage.

Additionally, the historically assertive tech entrepreneur and current Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took a more measured approach to the second debate but still managed to find moments to spar with his fellow candidates. To support his opinion that artificial divisions within the party are counterproductive, Ramaswamy cited Reagan’s 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” However, former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley went against Ramaswamy’s emulation of Reagan in a heated exchange with Ramaswamy about his stance on TikTok and the Chinese government. Insulting Ramaswamy, Haley said, “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.” 

Overall, it is evident that even in a debate hosted within a shrine to Reagan, Republicans were unable to let go of the combative style of politics that has permeated into the party over the last decade. Displaying such inability to coalesce, the infighting displayed at the second Republican presidential debate only served to benefit one Republican: Donald Trump.