Republican rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis clash in the 2024 campaign’s first head-to-head debate Wednesday, each searching for the critical blow that could position them to become the sole viable challenger to Donald Trump.
Five days before the Iowa caucuses, the CNN debate represents a final chance for the duo to change the dynamics before the first voting of a landmark election in which the ex-president is the favorite to win his third straight GOP nomination.
Trump, as always pursuing a strategy that confounds political orthodoxy, is boycotting the event, reflecting a campaign that’s been routed more through courts hearing his multiple legal cases than traditional stops on the road to the White House.
That juxtaposition was in evidence Tuesday, when Trump showed up in a Washington, DC, appeals court to hear his lawyers argue that he should enjoy absolute presidential immunity over his effort to overturn the 2020 election. The case underscored the stakes of the 2024 election as it shed light on Trump’s perception of an all-powerful presidency without constraints — an omen for a possible second term.
The only feasible way that the ex-president, still the dominant figure in the GOP, could face a true test in the primary is if all the Republican opposition to him is corralled by a single candidate. Unless that happens within days, the hopes of those Republicans looking for someone else could be dashed again, just as when Trump rose to power in 2016 from a splintered field. Haley has narrowed the gap with Trump in New Hampshire to single digits, according to a new CNN poll, but he still has a meaningful lead in the state’s primary, which is just a week after Iowa.
Wednesday’s debate could therefore represent an important moment. Nothing is decided with voters yet to give their verdicts. But Trump’s dominant position shows that neither…
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