With former president and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump choosing to sit out the first Republican primary debate, eight candidates had an opportunity to highlight their policies and differences from their peers ahead of the 2024 election.

Several polls showed that two candidates stood out as the winners in the eyes of Republican voters.

What Happened: The first Republican primary debate aired on Fox News, a unit of Fox Corporation, and was livestreamed on Rumble Inc on Wednesday, August 23.

Trump opted to not appear at the debate, instead taking part in a pre-recorded interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson that was released on X five minutes before the start of the debate.

The video interview of Carlson and Trump generated over 70 million views in its first hour of release and has over 260 million views at the time of writing.

Several polls found Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy as the winners of the first debate.

A FiveThirtyEight/Washington Post/Ipsos poll asked Republican voters who they thought won the first Republican debate and saw the eight candidates ranked in this order:

• Ron DeSantis
• Vivek Ramaswamy
• Nikki Haley
• Mike Pence
• Chris Christie
• Tim Scott
• Asa Hutchinson
• Doug Burgum

According to the poll, DeSantis narrowly beat Ramaswamy with 29% of the vote compared to 26%.

On the flip side, when asked who was the worst performer in the first debate, Republican voters ranked the eight candidates as follows:

• Chris Christie
• Asa Hutchinson
• Mike Pence
• Vivek Ramaswamy
• Doug Burgum
• Ron DeSantis
• Tim Scott
• Nikki Haley

Haley ranked lowest as the worst performer and came in third place as the best performer, suggesting she had a fairly strong debate. A scale that ranked the candidates' performance based on pre-debate expectations found that DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Haley and Scott all exceeded expectations from GOP voters.

The FiveThirtyEight/Washington Post/Ipsos poll also found that Haley may have been one of the top gainers when asked if voters would consider voting for each candidate.

Many of the candidates gained in this regard, with DeSantis going from 63% to 67.5% and Ramaswamy going from 40.88% to 46.3%. Haley had the biggest jump, going from 30.2% to 46.7% after the debate.

Meanwhile, the percentage of voters who are considering Trump fell from 66.2% to 61.4% following the debate.

A New York Post poll ranked the eight presidential candidates as follows based on who won the first debate according to Republican voters:

• Vivek Ramaswamy: 23%
• Ron DeSantis: 21%
• Mike Pence: 11%
• Nikki Haley: 7%
• Tim Scott: 6%
• Chris Christie: 4%
• Asa Hutchinson: 4%
• Doug Burgum: 1%

Related Link: Trump's Lead Among Republican Voters Grows After Fourth Indictment, DeSantis Losing Support 

Why It’s Important: As expected, DeSantis and Ramaswamy had strong debates and continue to be among the next leading candidates for the GOP nomination after Trump.

Haley may have had one of the top debates, ranking as one of the candidates who exceeded expectations and ranking last in a poll of who had the worst debate. Haley also ranked third and fourth in the two polls above for who had the best debate.

The strong performance by Haley came as she had the fifth-most speaking time among candidates, as previously reported by Benzinga.

Election polls released in the coming week could show whether voters are more likely to vote for Haley after her strong showing at the first debate. The polls could also show if Ramaswamy can continue his surge to third place and nearing second, or if DeSantis can regain momentum after dropping in recent months. 

Read Next: 2024 Election Betting Odds: Biden Gains, DeSantis Drops, Ramaswamy Climbs 

Photo: Shutterstock