Post Debate, Republicans Pine for What Could Have Been with DeSantis, Haley

Former President Donald Trump faced off against Vice President Kamala Harris in a debate Tuesday night, but some Republicans left the debate pining for what could have been, with another nominee such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Harris successfully got under Trump’s skin at several points throughout the debate, taking digs at Trump’s reputation among foreign leaders, legal troubles and crowd sizes.
A CNN flash poll found that 63 percent of debate viewers believed Harris won the debate, compared to 37 percent who believed Trump won, a contrast from Trump’s debate against President Joe Biden in June, when most viewers believed the former president had won.
Some Republicans reflected on how other candidates may have fared during the debate. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, said on CNN Wednesday morning that Harris won, and that Haley may have been in a stronger position for victory.
“If Nikki Haley had been in that debate, it would have been great. It would have been lights out. I was thinking about how she would have performed, but primaries are different. They can be pretty vicious even within your own party, but at the end of the day, most folks will galvanize around the candidate,” Sununu said.
Republican strategist Matt Klink told Newsweek it can be “difficult to assess” whether another candidate would have performed better in the debate.
“Ambassador Haley would certainly offer a softer tone in debating Kamala Harris and would be able to answer questions about abortion and the economy with more focus, but the campaign itself would be significantly different,” he said. “The Democrat’s campaign is entirely structured on making Donald Trump the issue and, by doing so, making him a socially unacceptable alternative for November 2024.”
Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that DeSantis and Haley may have “presented more of a challenge for Harris because their debating styles are not as well known and because they would have prepared more fully than Trump did.
“They also do not carry the baggage that Trump does such as his disparaging comments about John McCain and repeated falsehoods. Harris’s call to ‘turn the page’ to the future than return to the past would not have worked with either DeSantis or Haley who are both younger than Trump and not former presidents,” he said.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment via email.
DeSantis and Haley were among the Republicans who challenged Trump in the presidential primary but fell short of winning enough support to defeat him. Haley lasted the longest in the primary, touting her ability to win over moderate, independent voters both candidates targeted during the debate.
Haley famously said that whichever party becomes the first to “retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.”
Many conservatives took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to warn that another candidate may have performed better during the debate.
“it’s too late now but GOP voters had a lot of choices in the primaries — and they picked the guy who had the best chance of … losing. Nikki Haley would have been a much better choice … but Republicans are stuck with who they voted for,” wrote journalist and analyst Bernard Goldberg.
“Imagine how different this debate would have been with Nikki Haley. I have a feeling she would have had more than just “concepts of a plan,'” posted Cara Mund, an anti-Trump Republican who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in North Dakota.
“Imagine a disciplined conservative who could stay focused on his or her attacks, not indulging deranged conspiracy theories, didn’t bicker about rallies sizes etc etc etc etc,” wrote Mike Cosper, Christianity Today’s director of media.
“Her name is Nikki Haley. She received ~ 5M primary votes & would have already had this thing locked up by now,” responded Alissa Baker, a Haley leadership team co-chair.
X user @PowerOwn45 wrote, “Gov. DeSantis would have exposed this vacuous woman in the first 5 minutes. Let’s not be stupid in 2028, Republicans.”
“Instead of nominating the most deranged person in public life, Republicans could have picked Haley or DeSantis, both of whom have proven they can handle media bias adeptly. But instead, the GOP once again chose a conman who can’t argue his way out of a paper bag. The consequences of that are on them,” posted Corie Whalen, communications media relations director at the think tank R Street.
Klink said that while Trump’s political strategy was acceptable when Biden was the Democratic nominee, Harris is younger and “more mentally adept” than the incumbent president, meaning that Trump now needs to “run a more focused, disciplined campaign.”
“He has yet to demonstrate that he is capable of doing that. But, the race still remains essentially tied, which should be of great concern to Democrats,” Klink said.
If Trump and Harris debate again, Trump “will need to be much sharper, less angry and more attuned to his strongest message points,” he said, referring to the economy and immigration.