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In the race of Republican American presidential candidates, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is increasingly coming into the spotlight alongside former President Donald Trump. At the fourth televised debate between the Republican presidential candidates on Wednesday evening (local time) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the 51-year-old was clearly the center of attention given her recent election successes and was the target of most of the verbal attacks. Trump, who appears to be unassailably ahead of his internal party rivals in the polls, once again stayed away from the runoff – and played much less of a role there than the only woman in the race.

This time there were only four candidates on the television stage. In addition to Haley, there were Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Several other candidates have already dropped out of the race due to their own poor prospects, such as former Vice President Mike Pence. Trump is currently the undisputed leader of the Republican field and has a lead of about 45 percentage points over DeSantis and Haley. Ramaswamy and Christie are in single figures.

Haley’s run

DeSantis, who was considered Trump’s most promising competitor at the start of the race, has seen a sharp decline in the polls in recent months. Haley, on the other hand, continued to make gains and recently overtook DeSantis. Just a few days ago she received an extra boost in the election campaign: the influential organization Americans for Prosperity, founded by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, expressed its support for the former governor of South Carolina. This means the 51-year-old will receive significant organizational and financial help, which could give her further tailwinds.

The attack of the competitors

And the focus in TV debates is usually on the person for whom things are going best politically. DeSantis attacked Haley again and again. He accused her, among other things, of being under the thumb of questionable wealthy donors. “Nikki will give in to the big donors if push comes to shove,” he raged. The 45-year-old also attacked Haley for past political positions, including accusing her of courting Chinese investors in her state as governor.

Once again, Ramaswamy stood out with particularly hard attacks on Haley. He repeatedly accused his party colleague of being corrupt and claimed she had amassed a fortune by pandering to corporations and millionaires. At one point, the 38-year-old somewhat awkwardly held up a sheet of paper. The formula: “Nikki = corrupt” was scrawled on it in capital letters. He insulted Haley as “more fascist” than incumbent President Joe Biden’s “regime” and teased that she wanted to send troops to Ukrainian provinces whose names she didn’t even know.

Her reaction

The 51-year-old conspicuously ignored Ramaswamy’s attacks this time after temporarily losing her cool following his accusations during the most recent TV debate. During the note campaign, she did not look at her competitor and when asked whether she wanted to respond to the accusations, coolly replied: “No, it is not worth my time to answer him.”

Haley withstood DeSantis’ attacks. She called him a liar and hypocrite several times. “Ron keeps lying because he’s losing.” And regarding the allegations about her donors, she responded, “He’s angry because Wall Street donors used to support him and now they support me.”

Above all, Haley clearly enjoyed being the center of attention: “I appreciate all the attention, guys, thank you so much for that.” As Christie tried to defend Haley against Ramaswamy, she smiled broadly. Christie reprimanded Ramaswamy and called on him to just “shut up” and stop insulting Haley. “This is a smart, capable woman who should not be offended,” the 61-year-old said, calling Ramaswamy a “smart idiot” and the “most annoying braggart in America.”

A bit of Trump

Christie again criticized Trump, calling him a “dictator” and “tyrant,” an “angry, bitter man” unfit to be president. He received several boos from the audience for this. Christie accused his fellow campaigners on stage of being too afraid to stand up to Trump. Christie also repeatedly warned his party colleagues, especially DeSantis, about avoiding the moderators’ questions and not providing clear answers.

In terms of content, all four repeated previous messages of political toughness, for example towards China or Iran. Ramaswamy, who does not get any real chances in the race and sometimes tries to rap during election campaigns, also stood out again with all kinds of radical conspiracy theories.

Trump, who will face various legal procedures next year in addition to the election campaign, decided this time not to organize a rival event in addition to the TV debate. He had not appeared at the previous televised rounds with his party colleagues and had argued that he did not need to participate because of his opinion polls.

Anyone who wants to become the Republican candidate must win primaries in individual states. The first vote of its kind in the state of Iowa will be on January 15. The actual presidential elections will ultimately take place in early November 2024. (sda/dpa)