After a revealing Super Tuesday and a heated debate last week, four Republican candidates will get back on stage to face off once again. Battalion news editor Sam King gives five things to watch for during the Fox News GOP debate in Detroit Thursday.
1. A focus on electability
As Donald Trump wins more and more states — claiming victory in seven on Super Tuesday — it becomes more apparent that the businessman-turned-politician will likely be the party’s nominee. Because of this, Trump will be looking to increase his moderateness in order to appeal to more of the population. Voters have already seen this in his support of the non-abortion aspects of Planned Parenthood, and while some of the other candidates chastise Trump for these non-conservative values, he may be trying to appeal to voters who may be on the fence.
2. Carson…? Carson…? Carson…?
Ben Carson announced Wednesday that he will not be participating in this debate and that he does, “not see a political path forward in light of … Super Tuesday primary results.” It’s unclear at time of press whether or not he will drop out of the race entirely, but he will be speaking about the future of his campaign on Friday in Washington, D.C. While his absence won’t really affect the debate dynamics — he was only speaking once every 20 minutes before — it’s still another step toward winnowing the Republican field.
3. Rubio continues the fight
Marco Rubio came away from Super Tuesday with his first primary victory in the election cycle and a close second place finish in Virginia. He’s been spinning his lack of success pretty well so far, but the fact of the matter is that, besides John Kasich, he is the lowest performing Republican candidate. He’s trying to keep his head above water and his aggressiveness at last week’s debate spoke to a lot of voters, so he’ll likely be utilizing a similar strategy during this debate to call out Trump on his shakier policies while touting his own.
4. Ted Cruz, the anti-Trump
Cruz came away with the most victories on Tuesday besides Trump, picking up his homestate of Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska. Having also won in Iowa, this is the third time that Cruz has proven he can beat Donald Trump, and that’s something a lot of anti-Trump voters will take note of. Cruz will look to continue proving to citizens that he is a viable alternative to Trump with strong conservative values.
5. Moderators with an iron fist
Wolf Blitzer at CNN’s debate last week lacked control of the field as the candidates steamrolled the moderators. The Fox News debate will be moderated by Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Trump’s old friend, Megyn Kelly — who share a history of conflict. The moderators will look to keep better control over the candidates than Blitzer and his co-moderators did last week in an effort to focus the Republicans on issues and policies rather than on each other.