{"id":2005623,"date":"2023-08-19T07:15:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T11:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/launch-time-is-anyone-in-the-2024-gop-field-besides-trump-ready-for-prime-time\/"},"modified":"2023-08-19T07:17:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T11:17:59","slug":"launch-time-is-anyone-in-the-2024-gop-field-besides-trump-ready-for-prime-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/launch-time-is-anyone-in-the-2024-gop-field-besides-trump-ready-for-prime-time\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 GOP field: Is anyone, other than Trump, prepared for prime time?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flaunch-time-is-anyone-in-the-2024-gop-field-besides-trump-ready-for-prime-time%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2005623&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>If Trump Skips \u200dthe\u2064 Debate, Can Any GOP\u200d Candidate Thrive in His Absence?<\/h2>\n<p>If former President Donald Trump doesn\u2019t \u200djoin\u200b the other\u200b major Republican presidential candidates at the first debate next week, the\u200c spotlight will still shine on one of \u200cthe \u200dbiggest \u200dstories of the 2024 race.<\/p>\n<p>The prevailing \u2064storyline is Trump&#8217;s continued dominance,\u2064 despite\u200b a slew of legal problems. But the \u2064subplot\u200b of\u200b the race is\u2064 the \u2063failure of the other GOP candidates to\u2062 launch.<\/p>\n<h3>DeSantis&#8217;s Struggle to \u2063Compete<\/h3>\n<p>Nowhere is that clearer than in the case of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), now nearly 40 points\u200b behind Trump in the national \u200cRealClearPolitics polling average and \u200cbelow 20% in the\u2062 critical \u2062early states.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis was supposed to compete\u2062 with Trump on something like even\u200c terms. He was \u200done of the few Republican leaders who came out of the midterm elections\u200b stronger than he entered, presiding over an actual \u200dred\u200b wave in the \u2063erstwhile battleground state of Florida, once \u200dknown for \u200bits \u200changing chads. But after a long buildup \u2062to\u200b his campaign announcement as\u200c he waited \u200bfor the Sunshine State legislative session to conclude, much of that momentum \u200chas been lost.<\/p>\n<p>Now he \u2062has Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) nipping at his heels in Iowa, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie\u200b doing the same in \u2062New Hampshire,\u2064 and Vivek Ramaswamy\u200b closing in on him in at least \u200csome <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-great-politically-for-republicans-to-talk-arizona-election-audit\/\" title=\"Trump: 'Great Politically' for Republicans to Talk Arizona Election Audit\">national polls<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Trump makes fun of DeSantis as a standard line in his stump speech even in\u2062 staid settings \u200clike state Republican fundraising dinners. \u200bThe partisan crowd \u2063laughs \u200balong as Trump tells the tale of endorsing a \u2062Florida congressman \u200dfor governor in 2018 only to have\u2063 \u201cthat son of a bitch\u201d\u200c turn around and \u2064run against him.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis\u2019s\u2062 team on \u2063Friday likened this \u200dstage of the race to the second inning of a baseball game. If so, the\u2063 rest of the field \u2063will need this one to go into \u2064extra innings.<\/p>\n<h3>Can Any Candidate Thrive Without Trump?<\/h3>\n<p>Former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador\u200c Nikki Haley,\u200b Christie, \u200cand Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) are all reliably in the single\u200c digits, \u2063candidates who might be\u200c in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-vaccine-guidelines-prioritize-marijuana-workers-over-teachers-promoting-equity\/\" title=\"California Vaccine Guidelines Prioritize Marijuana Workers Over Teachers, Promoting \u2018Equity\u2019\">top tier<\/a> in a\u200c normal cycle. The\u2062 latest Fox News poll \u200bhas as many primary contenders\u200c at 0% as in \u200cdouble digits.<\/p>\n<p>If Trump follows through on skipping the Republican National Committee \u200cdebate, the \u200dkey will be \u200cwhether \u2062any of these candidates can thrive in his \u200dabsence. Trump suspects that without the \u2064oxygen only \u200bhe \u200bcan\u200b provide by getting on that stage in Milwaukee, \u200dthey will all suffocate.<\/p>\n<p>A second or third candidate becoming competitive is not sufficient to defeat Trump, based on the past history of other strong front-runners. George \u2062H.W.\u200b Bush lost Iowa in 1988 but\u200d recovered to win the nomination. Bob Dole and George W. Bush both lost \u2064New Hampshire. John McCain, Mitt Romney,\u200b and Trump in 2016 all lost\u2064 Iowa and rebounded.<\/p>\n<p>So\u2064 even if\u2064 one of the candidates in Milwaukee can make it a race, \u2063there\u2062 is no guarantee they would beat Trump. They \u2063are trying to erase a larger\u200c deficit than\u200c any winning candidate has\u2064 ever overcome.<\/p>\n<p>President Joe Biden came back \u2063from a near-death political experience to win \u200dthe Democratic\u2064 nomination in\u200d 2020. But the candidates ahead of him \u2063didn\u2019t have the type of lead Trump has, nor had they led the party for\u200b eight years.<\/p>\n<p>McCain \u200bcame\u200b back from a similarly precarious position to win in 2008. But Rudy Giuliani\u2019s lead\u200d was smaller, \u2062and he bypassed the early\u200c states because unlike Trump, he wasn&#8217;t winning them. McCain, Giuliani, \u200dRomney, \u200cand Fred Thompson were \u2062all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/an-illinois-dem-helped-biden-cancel-keystone-now-shes-campaigning-on-us-energy-independence\/\" title=\"An Illinois Dem Helped Biden Cancel Keystone. Now, She\u2019s Campaigning on US Energy Independence.\">top-tier candidates<\/a> who \u200bwere seen as having\u2064 a chance to win going into the\u2063 primaries.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Clinton was originally a second-tier candidate in 1992.\u2062 But\u2062 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/launch-time-is-anyone-in-the-2024-gop-field-besides-trump-ready-for-prime-time\/\" title=\"2024 GOP field: Is anyone, other than Trump, prepared for prime time?\">entire\u200d top \u200btier ahead<\/a>\u200b of him took a pass\u200b on the race, assuming\u200c the Persian Gulf War victory made Bush unbeatable.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Carter came back after trailing Ted Kennedy in \u20621980. But\u200b he was the incumbent president.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is attempting to\u200c run as a\u200c quasi-incumbent. So far, it is working.<\/p>\n<p>Another candidate is going to have to show \u200bbetween the first debate\u200c and when the first \u2064votes are cast that they can alter that dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it is early. But if Trump wasn\u2019t\u2062 facing\u2063 indictments \u200din four\u2062 separate cases, it might already be too late.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/if-trump-skips-the-debate-can-any-gop-candidate-thrive-in-his-absence\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM\u200d THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A candidate other\u2063 than Trump is\u200d going to need to show they are ready to launch.<\/p>\n<p>If not in Milwaukee, it is hard to see \u2063when.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If Trump skips the first debate, the spotlight remains on the 2024 race&#8217;s major story: his enduring dominance despite legal issues. The subplot is the failure of other candidates to match his presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2005624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2005623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2005623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2005624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}