The Republican National Committee (RNC) has announced that its first presidential debate will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this August. The debate will feature Republican candidates such as Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, who have both recently announced their candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. The RNC is currently considering between 10 and 12 debates, to be held from August until the date of its national convention in 2024, when it will formally choose a nominee to represent the party.
Details such as the debate’s date and location have yet to be decided, and the RNC has yet to lay out criteria for participation in the debates. However, the committee has articulated its intent to ask each debate participant to pledge their support for the party’s eventual nominee.
Trump announced his candidacy in November 2022, shortly after the US midterm elections. He remains under scrutiny for his actions on January 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 elections, which saw Trump lose the presidency to Joe Biden. Trump has spread false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him, and is also subject to other ongoing investigations.
The only other candidate to announce their bid for the Republican nomination has been Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations. In announcing her run for the presidency earlier this month, Haley highlighted her heritage as the “proud daughter” of Indian immigrants, and called for a “new generation of leadership”. Other potential candidates include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, but neither has announced their candidacy yet.
The debate in Wisconsin is expected to be a crucial event for the Republican Party, as it will be their first chance to showcase their eventual nominee in a world class fashion. The RNC hopes that by doing so, they can reverse their recent trend of losing the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. The party’s nominee will then face off against the Democratic Party candidate in the 2024 election, with Biden popularly seen as the presumptive nominee.