After weeks of speculation over who was going to participate, eight Republican candidates seeking their party’s presidential nomination appeared on stage together in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, 2023, for the first debate of the 2024 election season. Lest this sound like a normal event, it was not – the leading candidate, former President Donald Trump, who’s getting more than 50% in national primary polls, chose not to come. But that may have been a benefit to the debaters, who were able to spend their time talking about issues and not simply fighting off attacks by Trump.
The Conversation U.S. asked three experts – foreign policy scholar Jordan Tama from American University, Michigan State law professor Brian Kalt and Arizona State historian Calvin Schermerhorn – to watch, listen and analyze the debate. Here are their contributions:
