{"id":2007763,"date":"2023-08-22T05:16:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T09:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-debate-desantis-gears-up-for-major-moment-onstage\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T05:17:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T09:17:53","slug":"republican-debate-desantis-gears-up-for-major-moment-onstage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-debate-desantis-gears-up-for-major-moment-onstage\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis prepares for pivotal moment in Republican debate."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/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%2Frepublican-debate-desantis-gears-up-for-major-moment-onstage%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=2007763&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>All Eyes on\u200b Gov. Ron \u200dDeSantis at Wednesday Night&#8217;s\u2064 Debate<\/h2>\n<p>All the candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night will hope for a breakout\u200b moment, but the brightest spotlight will\u2064 likely shine on Gov.\u200b Ron DeSantis (R-FL).<\/p>\n<p>As the highest-polling candidate \u2062who is attending, DeSantis\u2064 will be positioned in the middle of the stage \u200dand is sure to\u2063 get some shade thrown his way over the course of the night.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>&#8220;Every candidate on and off the debate stage will have their knives out for Ron DeSantis\u2062 because they \u2063know this is a two-man race,&#8221; campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said. &#8220;If DeSantis wasn&#8217;t the \u2063best\u200b candidate to beat Joe\u2063 Biden, Donald Trump wouldn&#8217;t have spent \u2062over\u2062 $20 million attacking him.&#8221;<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While some politicos such as former Obama adviser David Axelrod \u200bsay\u2063 DeSantis has the most to lose \u2062from the \u200ddebate, his camp is emphasizing \u200cthe positives ahead of the Milwaukee showdown. For example, a Des Moines Register poll found that 61% of respondents listed DeSantis as either their first \u200dor second choice or are actively considering\u200b him, just 2 points behind the \u200dfront-runner, former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>In this view, it&#8217;s the other candidates, all of whom are polling at less than \u200d10% nationally, who need a\u2064 breakout moment at the debate, not the \u2062Florida governor.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the wider trend for DeSantis has been overwhelmingly negative since he became a candidate in May. His national polling peaked at \u2064just over 30% in the spring, and he sits at less than 15% today.<\/p>\n<p>In the \u2062space \u2064between those numbers, some Republican strategists see an opening.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>&#8220;I think DeSantis is\u200b by far the \u200dmost popular Republican amongst the most conservative \u200dactivists in Iowa,&#8221; said GOP strategist John \u2063Feehery. \u200d&#8221;And I don\u2019t think that\u2063 the polling adequately shows how popular he is\u200c with\u2063 that crowd.&#8221;<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Feehery argues that a good\u200d debate for the Florida governor would showcase that he&#8217;s the &#8220;least woke candidate,&#8221; the best on COVID-19 policy in contrast to Trump- and Pence-approved lockdowns, and the candidate most willing\u200c to fight for conservative\u200c grassroots causes.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that DeSantis is coming in under the\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-debate-desantis-gears-up-for-major-moment-onstage\/\" title=\"DeSantis prepares for pivotal moment in Republican debate.\">strongest spotlight\u200d means<\/a> some \u2064of the lesser-known candidates \u2063will be looking for a breakout moment, argues \u2064Hofstra University professor of rhetoric and public advocacy Tomeka Robinson.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will introduce them to the wider public,&#8221; she said, naming\u200d former U.N. Ambassador \u200bNikki Haley as a\u200c potential breakout star of the evening.<\/p>\n<p>Robinson also criticized a \u2062memo posted on the website of DeSantis&#8217;s super PAC advising him to hammer \u200bVivek Ramaswamy and defend Trump, saying she&#8217;d advise him\u2063 to do just the \u2064opposite.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;DeSantis should establish what is different about himself,&#8221; she said. &#8220;All of the non-Trump candidates are\u2063 lagging far behind, so they \u200bneed to show why voters should take a look at them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That take \u200dis similar to the view of conservative commentator and\u200b activist Erick Erickson, who hosted a Trump-free event in Georgia \u2064last week.<\/p>\n<p>One of the biggest storylines of the \u2064debate \u2062is the fact that Trump \u200dis skipping, though the move is \u2064far\u2063 from unprecedented as\u200c both Bob Dole \u2063and George W. Bush skipped some primary debates during their presidential runs. Bush was later drawn onstage by a John McCain surge, and it remains to be seen if Trump will join in later.<\/p>\n<p>The debate&#8217;s location is also\u2064 noteworthy as \u200bWisconsin will\u200d be\u200c one\u2062 of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/desantis-debrief-special-needs-golfer-thanks-desantis-in-new-tv-ad\/\" title=\"DeSantis Debrief: Special needs golfer thanks DeSantis in new TV ad\">hotly contested states<\/a> next year. It was one of the \u200b&#8221;blue\u2064 wall&#8221; states that Trump won in 2016, only to return to\u200b the Democratic camp four years later. Both political parties want to win Wisconsin badly, and the Democratic\u200d National Committee will host a press conference in Milwaukee on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Julia Azari, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-look-back-on-court-packing-attempts-in-us-history\/\" title=\"A Look Back On \u2018Court Packing\u2019 Attempts in US History\">political science professor<\/a> at Milwaukee-based Marquette \u2064University, notes that\u2063 the state has \u200ctrended red\u200c in recent years but has a rocky relationship with Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Azari also said that polling indicates &#8220;kitchen table&#8221; issues like the economy are connecting better with voters than cultural issues like abortion and the teaching of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">critical race theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>&#8220;DeSantis&#8217;s trajectory has illustrated some of that,&#8221; she \u2064said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll be looking for the candidates to make a case for themselves. Is it \u200dabout \u200dideology, electability,\u2062 background \u200dand skills, their appeal with small donors? Those are the questions I&#8217;ll be looking at.&#8221;<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE\u2063 FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All candidates in Wednesday night&#8217;s debate seek a breakout moment, but Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) will likely steal the spotlight. As the top-polling attendee, DeSantis will be center stage, inviting criticism from others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2007764,"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-2007763","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\/2007763","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=2007763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2007764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2007763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2007763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2007763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}