The eight Republican presidential candidates to qualify for a spot on the debate stage in Milwaukee have been announced. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel confirmed the list of candidates Monday.

McDaniel released a brief statement.

“The RNC is excited to showcase our diverse candidate field and the conservative vision to beat Joe Biden on the debate stage Wednesday night,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in Monday night’s statement.

The eight Republicans who made the stage are Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Doug Burgum, and Asa Hutchinson. Donald Trump will be a no-show. The question is – who will take the most fire? Will it be Ron DeSantis or will it be Donald Trump? Maybe Vivek Ramaswamy?

Vivek is catching on with younger voters. He’s an interesting candidate but his inexperience comes through at times. He’s a smooth talker and can speak without notes at length on most topics, which is a handy skill to have in politics, but his foreign policy ideas need some reality checks. His thoughts on Taiwan and Israel, for example, give me pause. Nikki Haley will likely have a zinger or two ready for him during the debate.

Haley served notice Monday, criticizing Ramaswamy for questioning the U.S. relationship with Israel. “Between abandoning Israel, abolishing the FBI, and giving Taiwan to China, his foreign policy proposals have a common theme,” she said. “They make America less safe.”

On Saturday, Chris Christie called Trump a coward for skipping the debate. He and Asa Hutchinson will be the two vocal anti-Trumpers on the stage. Christie thinks he can play to Trump’s ego and taunt him into participating in debates but this time around, it probably won’t work. Trump just goes to social media and slams Christie or whomever he thinks is being mean to him.

Is Tim Scott going to prove to be a sleeper in this race? He is ranked number three in Iowa now. Trump is still 23 points ahead in Iowa. However, Iowa is interesting because the majority of likely caucus voters are persuadable. They are open to supporting someone other than Trump.

Tim Scott received a notable endorsement in Georgia on Tuesday. An endorsement on the eve of the first debate came from former U.S. Sen. Mack Mattingly. He is the first elected official in Georgia who held federal office to endorse Scott. Only a few prominent state Republicans have chosen a candidate to endorse. Mattingly likes Scott’s ideas on lower taxes, limited government, strong national defense, and individual responsibility. You know, all the things Republicans traditionally stand for.

“We believe that every voter should seek out candidates that best match their own beliefs, and then work hard to help that person succeed,” Mattingly said in a statement with his wife Leslie. “Senator Tim Scott is that leader for us.”

Mattingly scored a historic upset in 1980 to defeat Democratic incumbent Herman Talmadge and become the first Republican U.S. senator from Georgia since Reconstruction. He lost to Democrat Wyche Fowler in 1986 and later retired to St. Simons Island.

Nikki Haley can present her points of view on a wide range of issues, both domestic and international because she has been a governor and worked at the United Nations. Her experience is greater than most of the other candidates, except Trump. She has been reluctant to go hard against any of her competitors, though, until she spoke out against Vivek’s foreign policy statements. It will be interesting to see if she harnesses her scope of experience to use against others.

DeSantis needs a break-out moment more than the others. He has to start turning the tide with his campaign if he is going to continue as the one to beat Trump. I’m still of the belief he can be Trump’s strongest challenger going forward and the Iowa Poll released yesterday shows he is competitive with Trump in Iowa.

Mike Pence is showing more aggression against Trump lately. He’s more outspoken on why he doesn’t think Trump should be president. Pence is thought of as a soft-spoken nice guy, and he is, but he’s also a career politician who knows a thing or two about campaigns. I’ll be watching to see if he goes for the jugular on Trump in his absence. This will be no time for Mr. Nice Guy.

Doug Burgum is an impressive candidate. He doesn’t have the name recognition he needs to catch fire nationally, at least not yet, and the debate is a good time for him to make an impression. He’s not one to sling mud against the others and he is less focused on cultural issues but he has a good mix of business and political experience. He’s a successful and popular governor. I’ll be watching to see how he mixes it up with the rest of the field.

And, the last candidate to mention here is Asa Hutchinson. Why, Asa? Why is he in the race? He’s an old-school Establishment Republican who has no lane in this race. He is a good man but he has no charisma with which to capture the imagination of Republican voters. He, like Christie, seems to be in the race solely to stop Trump and that just isn’t a good enough reason. We need strong candidates who can beat Joe Biden. Republicans want to win in 2024 – we’re tired of losing. Asa Hutchinson wouldn’t beat Joe Biden. Asa’s time has passed in elected office.

It will be interesting to see if the two candidates from South Carolina – Nikki Haley and Tim Scott – will mix it up with each other. I will be surprised if that happens. Neither has said anything disparaging against the other so far and I don’t look for that to happen.

Trump is taping his interview with Tucker Carlson which is supposed to be alternative programming for those more interested in Trump. This will allow Trump to watch the debate as everyone else will be doing and he will go to social media and make his comments. He doesn’t think he needs to show up and ask for votes with the others but he will make himself a part of the event. The day after the debate he will turn himself in for processing in Atlanta. He will get fingerprinted and have a mugshot taken. That will be the non-stop story on cable news and take the focus away from the others and their performances at the debate. He could wait for the Friday deadline at noon to turn himself in but that would allow a day’s worth of chatter about the other candidates in the media. This is Trump being Trump.

There will be surrogates from Trump’s campaign at the debate. I don’t think they should be allowed to be in the spin room post-debate with the others from competing campaigns. It’s not fair for Team Trump to parachute in without participating in the event. Kari Lake, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Byron Donalds, and Matt Gaetz will be there. Donald Trump, Jr. also said he will be there as a surrogate for his father.

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