Who won the Republican debate? In Haley vs DeSantis, neither GOP candidate pulled punches

The show was stolen before it even began.

The two GOP candidates battling for second place in the Republican presidential primary − Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis − had a chance to show their party they were the best alternative to the front-runner, Donald Trump.

But the biggest blow of the night Wednesday happened off stage when former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the 2024 presidential race just hours before his competitors began exchanging jabs. Christie, a longtime critic of Trump, appeared to make sure during his farewell address that questions about the former president loomed large over his former competitors on the stage.  And he didn't hold back on his views of the No. 2s; he was caught on a hot mic bad-mouthing his rivals. "She's going to get smoked," he said of Haley. As for DeSantis? He's ''petrified.''

“For all the people who have been in this race, who have put their own personal ambition ahead of what’s right, they will ultimately have to answer the same questions that I had to answer after my decision in 2016,” he said, referring to his support for Trump in 2016.

Minutes into the debate, CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash forced the candidates to confront those questions head on – asking them whether the business mogul has the character to be president.

With a quickly winnowing field and heightening stakes in the GOP race, here’s a look at the winners and losers of the night.

Trump sits comfortably in the lead

You can’t be in two places at once – but Trump, who is favored to win in Iowa, was omnipresent Wednesday night.

In addition to being name-checked on the Drake University debate stage, the former president appeared in an hourlong televised town hall on Fox News. And the crowd of voters who turned out to see the real estate tycoon appeared to ask few challenging questions, giving Trump opportunities to attack his rivals while they lobbed criticisms at each other.

With a close to 50% lead in most Iowa polls, Trump’s position in the caucuses appeared sealed well before his competitors took the stage. And neither did enough to counter the president, experts told USA TODAY.

“No clear winner, except for the guy not on the stage,” said Jimmy Centers, a GOP strategist based in Iowa. “He’s the benefactor of this food fight.”

DeSantis comes out swinging

DeSantis has staked his campaign on a strong second-place finish in Iowa, a feat that may have hinged on his performance behind the CNN podium.

Polls show the two governors within mere percentage points of each other in the Hawkeye State. And DeSantis sought to shake up those standings Wednesday by pushing Haley on the defensive on hot-button topics such as immigration, foreign policy and education.

He copied one of Trump’s lines of attack against the former South Carolina governor, calling her approach to foreign policy and support for Ukraine aid a “carbon copy” of President Joe Biden’s policies.

Karen Kedrowski, a professor of political science at Iowa State, said DeSantis was at his best and described his tactics as “more polished, less stammering, less dodging.” But ultimately, she questioned whether his spending “more time talking about Haley than his own policies” would play with voters watching.

Nikki Haley leans on DeSantisLies.com

Trump might have been among the most-mentioned topics of the night, but Haley’s campaign-funded website against DeSantis was surely a close second.

The former U.N. ambassador mentioned the site DeSantisLies.com more than a dozen times throughout the two-hour-long debate, using it as a blanket way to defend against attacks from her opponent.

“But every time he lies, Drake University, don't turn this into a drinking game because you will be overserved by the end of the night,” Haley said in one memorable quip, before mentioning the site.

The pure repetition may have made for an effective strategy.

“The website name is going to stick, that’s for sure,” Kedrowski said. “Even if people don’t go to the website, they’ll remember ‘DeSantis Lies.’”

TikTok favorite Vivek Ramaswamy: 'Turn this s--t off'

Vivek Ramaswamy had been a big presence in the previous four GOP debates, even if he never really dominated in the polls. He was absent because of his low poll numbers, but he didn't go quietly.

Airing an ad in every market in Iowa, he made his message pretty plain about the importance of the final standoff.

"Don't fall for their trick," he said. ''Turn that s--t off.''

Candidates' attacks overshadow policy discourse

If voters tuning into Wednesday’s debate were looking for robust policy discussions, they probably walked away disappointed.

“They are focused a lot on attacking each other rather than articulating their positions in more detail,” said Sara Mitchell, a political science professor at the University of Iowa.

2024 Voter Guide: Compare where presidential candidates stand on key issues

The candidates went back and forth on myriad topics throughout the night, including some, including health care, they hadn’t discussed before on stage. But those discussions often devolved into personal insults.

At one point, a conversation about education priorities turned into an argument about leadership capabilities. “If you can't manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?" Haley asked DeSantis.

“The second half evolved into a food fight,” Centers said. “Iowans would have benefited from a conversation on kitchen table issues.”

Contributing: David Jackson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who won the debate tonight? Who came out on top in Haley vs Desantis