US Republican Primary Election: Here’s Where The Candidates Stand
Photo Credit: Morry Gash/Associated Press via NPR
The Republican primary election — scheduled to take place in January of next year—is an important upcoming event in the United States, as it determines which Republican candidate will be on the ballot for President in the 2024 general election. While the Democratic Party has very few candidates apart from Biden (as with the case for most primary elections where a party has an incumbent president), the Republican Party has a handful of candidates.
As of the date this article was written, the Republican Party’s frontrunners are former president Donald Trump at 57.8 per cent support according to YouGov polls, Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis at 14.8 per cent, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 7.3 per cent, and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley at 6.7 per cent. The other candidates include former Vice President Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Tim Scott, Doug Burgum, Asa Hutchinson, and Will Hurd, all polling at 4 per cent or below. As the primary election draws near, candidates are attempting to capture the attention of Republican voters across the nation and using the debates as a platform to showcase their policies.
Two Republican debates have happened so far, with the third one scheduled to take place on Nov. 8. While most frontrunners have attended both debates, Trump chose not to attend either of them, scheduling interviews with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on the same day. During the debates, several key issues that voters care about were brought up, including abortion rights, the economy, foreign affairs (especially concerning China and Russia), climate change, immigration, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Abortion
Since the overturning of Roe v Wade, a law that ensures the legalization of abortion in all 50 states, Republicans have leaned more to the right than before on policies related to abortion control. While most Republicans identify as “pro-life” and agree that some restrictions on abortions should be implemented, they disagree on how severe the restrictions should be. Trump has stated that he was the one who pushed the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade and could take abortion restrictions even further, while DeSantis implemented a six-week ban as governor of Florida and plans to do something similar on the national level. Ramaswamy echos DeSantis’s ideas on the six-week ban, while Haley has called for a 15-week ban and increased access to birth control.
Climate Change
As for climate change, many Republican candidates have acknowledged that it exists to some extent, but have rejected most policies to combat it. Trump has historically questioned the existence of climate change (calling it a “hoax” on multiple occasions over the years), and continues to put protection of the fossil fuel industry at the forefront. Meanwhile, DeSantis has announced some plans to adapt to climate change instead of mitigating it, including building infrastructure to strengthen the country against hurricanes. Ramaswamy opposes any government funding to combat climate change, and has proposed cutting costs related to mitigating global warming. Meanwhile, Haley supports climate change reduction to some extent, but opposes using government funding to solve the issue.
LGBTQ+ Rights
Another key issue in the debates is LGBTQ+ rights, especially the rights of transgender individuals. Most frontrunners have supported policies that restrict certain LGBTQ+ rights, and plan to go further. During his years as president, Trump removed protections for LGBTQ+ rights, including transgender rights. However, in 2020, he said that he supports same-sex marriage to an extent. Meanwhile, anti-transgender policies have been a centerpiece of DeSantis’s campaign, with many new laws already in place in Florida, including the criminalization of transgender people’s use of bathrooms matching their gender identity and the ban of the instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools. DeSantis was also the one to approve of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, which has been widely criticized on the left. Ramaswamy proposes a national ban on transition care for minors and a ban on the use of public funds for transition care for anyone. He also supports banning transgender people from some military roles, referring to the transgender identity as a “secular religion”, a “mental illness”, and a “cult”. Haley also supports such legislation, stating that transgender people “increase suicide ideation in women”, a claim unsupported by any scientific evidence. She believes that transgender women and girls competing in female sports is “the women’s issue of our time.”
Immigration
Immigration has been a cornerstone in the Republican candidates’ campaigns, especially with the growth of undocumented immigration from Mexico at the Southern border. Back in 2015, during his first presidential campaign, Trump proposed building a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out of the country and plans to further strengthen the southern border. He also planned to impose restrictions on Muslim immigrants. DeSantis wants to enforce policies that include mass deportations, detention of children, and the license to kill some border crossers. He also wants to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, as well as deploy troops to the border. Several of these policies, which have been analyzed by The New York Times, violate the 1997 consent decree for protection of children and the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to all people born in the US. However, DeSantis has characterized this as debatable. He stated that “we’re going to fully deputize all state and local governments to be able to enforce it.” Ramaswamy similarly plans on using military force and deporting American-born children of undocumented immigrants. However, he said he’d allow the legal immigration of people deported as children. Haley supports most of Trump’s policies including building a wall, but contrary to Trump, she does not believe there should be regulations on Muslim immigrants.
Ukraine
The candidates have varying stances regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly pushed for the ending of the war and says that the fight is more important for Europe than the US. However, he did not say whether he would continue to provide military aid. DeSantis opposes sending more military aid and does not want the US to get further involved. Instead, he thinks European members of NATO should be handling the issue. Ramaswamy also opposes sending further aid, and he has called for Ukraine to surrender and cede some land to Russia in exchange for Russia ending its military alliance with China. Haley said she would continue sending equipment and ammunition to aid and support Ukraine. She claims that President Biden has been too slow in helping Ukraine, and said that she would push for Ukraine to join NATO as soon as possible.
Trump Investigations
The other candidates have been asked several questions about the multiple criminal investigations that former President Trump is involved in, which include the mishandling of classified documents, inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and financial fraud. DeSantis criticized Trump for some of his actions, but also regularly bashes the justice system for being corrupt and biased. Ramaswamy defended Trump and criticized the justice system. He was the first to raise his hand during the first debate when the candidates were asked if they would commit to supporting Trump in a general election if he was convicted of a crime. Haley has been going both ways, saying that if the allegations were true, then Trump had been reckless with national security, but during the first debate, she still said she would support him in a general election even if he was convicted of his crimes.
Economy
Most candidates agree that solutions to combat inflation and help the economy include cuts in spending, as well as tax regulations. Ramaswamy additionally suggested transferring government funding towards climate change to the economy instead. In general, in terms of the economy, while Republicans have differing ideas on how to combat inflation, their general views are similar.
As the date of the party primary approaches, Republicans in the United States are divided. The world is watching closely, as a pivotal election looms closer.