Simi Valley will play host to the second Republican presidential debate as seven candidates vie to siphon votes from frontrunner Donald Trump, the former president who will once again skip the debate stage.
The debate, hosted at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, will include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, ex-Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former South Carolina governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Hailey, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
To qualify, candidates needed at least 3% support in two national polls or 3% in one national poll as well as two polls from four of the early-voting states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
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How can I watch the second Republican presidential debate?
The debate will air Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Fox News and Fox Business Network in English and Univision in Spanish. Viewers can also tune into livestreams of the debate on the Rumble video-sharing platform, as well as the Ronald Reagan Foundation website.
Fox Business hosts Stuart Varney and Dana Perino, as well as Univision’s Ilia Calderón, will moderate.
What should I know about the Ronald Reagan library?
Located in Simi Valley, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library sits on 300 acres, where the former president and his wife, first lady Nancy Reagan, are buried. It houses a museum, as well as records from Reagan’s administration, including more than 60 million pages of documents and 1.6 million photographs.
What’s at stake?
Despite his legal troubles and controversies, Trump remains Republicans’ favorite candidate to challenge President Joe Biden in 2024.
A national NBC News poll released Sunday showed Trump, who faces the prospect of jail time after being indicted four times this year, maintains an overwhelming lead among the Republican field. Fifty-nine percent of Republican primary voters favor Trump, according to the poll, with DeSantis a distant second at 16%.
DeSantis earned Trump’s endorsement in his successful bid for Florida governor in 2018. In the years since, he became a darling of the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican party, taking hard-right stances on issues like abortion, COVID-19 vaccines and LGBTQ+ issues.
However, his campaign has sputtered as he’s struggled to gain traction among a national electorate. The former president, once an ally, has since soured on DeSantis, forcefully attacking his now-presidential rival.
Meanwhile, Pence continues struggling to get any traction. The NBC News poll found only 4% of respondents had him as their first choice for president, with base voters also turning on him following his refusal to follow Trump’s orders to overturn the 2020 election, which Pence did not have the power to do.
The poll had Hailey ahead of Pence, with 7% of respondents saying they favored her for president.
While his challengers slug it out on the debate stage, Trump plans to deliver a speech to striking United Auto Workers members in Michigan.
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