Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley is up. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are down, according to a poll.
And former President Donald Trump was the ultimate winner of the third 2024 Republican presidential primary debate despite not showing up.
Again.
According to a poll released by 538/Washington Post, viewers of the debate named Haley as the winner by a large margin. 34 percent of viewers said Haley performed best. At a distant second among viewers was DeSantis, 23 percent rated him the best.
Ramaswamy had a largely negative impression on viewers; 29 percent rated him as performing the worst.
The key word, though, is viewers.
Ratings for the third debate plummeted, down 71 percent from 2015’s Republican presidential debates.
Newsmax reported —
The third Republican presidential primary debate, hosted by NBC News, witnessed a dramatic viewership decline with just over 6 million viewers tuning in, marking the lowest audience turnout of the current campaign season and a 45% drop in viewers from the first debate.
Among viewers, the share said they are considering voting for Haley jumped from 45 percent to 53 percent. But Trump still dwarfs that, with 61 percent saying they’re considering voting for him.
In other words, only Haley really made up ground among those voters that bothered to tune in — and not nearly enough to catch Trump’s massive polling advantage.
Trump averages an incredible 44 point advantage on average over his nearest rival, DeSantis or Haley (depending on the poll).
But don’t take our word for it.
Share your thoughts in our straw poll — did Trump or one of his rivals win the 3rd Republican presidential primary debate?
Who won the 3rd Republican primary debate?
Share your thoughts in this snap straw poll --
The Horn editorial team