The first Republican presidential debate is fast approaching on Aug. 23, when candidates will hope to close the gap on former President Donald Trump and separate from the rest of the pack. In this series, Up For Debate, the Washington Examiner will look at a key issue or policy every day up until debate day and where key candidates stand. Below is a list of each breakdown published by the Washington Examiner on driving issues for the field — including spending and debt, abortion, the economy, impeaching Joe Biden, the border, and energy and climate change.
Many of the Republican candidates for president have hit out at President Joe Biden for adding to the national debt since being sworn into office. Notably, Biden and Democrats oversaw a rash of spending early on in the form of pandemic relief and continued that with other legislation.
It is bound to be a big topic at the first debate and throughout the campaign.
Republican members of the House Oversight Committee suggested that a Biden impeachment inquiry was necessary after Devon Archer, a business associate of Hunter Biden, testified behind closed doors with the committee. But the movement has divided more centrist Republicans who represent districts that Biden won and would face tough reelection bids in 2024 if impeachment charges were brought up, threatening the Republican House majority.
Some of the Republicans running for president have not hesitated, however, to support the more conservative wing of their party in moving to impeach Biden.
Republican 2024 candidates have almost unilaterally used the term “weaponized” to describe the Department of Justice during this election cycle. Some have elevated concerns that the DOJ and FBI labeled parents of students “domestic terrorists,” discriminated against certain traditional Catholics, or coordinated with social media companies to censor protected speech.
But more than any other issue, all of the candidates have been forced, on multiple occasions, to take a position on the DOJ’s decision to prosecute the primary front-runner, former President Donald Trump.
Abortion has already splintered the GOP primary field, giving candidates a talking point when it comes to distinguishing themselves in the first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle.
In many issues, analysts see the field as divided into Trump and non-Trump categories, but candidates have positioned themselves on the abortion debate on a scale of whether there is a federal role in it or whether it is a state issue.
Energy and climate priorities will be a key focus in the 2024 Republican primary race as the candidates look to position themselves on oil and gas production, energy security, and sustainability topics such as environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, spending.
While the candidates espouse a wide range of views on these topics, each hopes to present himself or herself as a clear alternative to President Joe Biden, whose policies, they argue, are crippling economic growth, pushing up consumer prices, and threatening U.S. competitiveness while driving an outsize reliance on China for manufacturing and production.
Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have demonstrated their belief that geopolitical power is up for grabs. The so-called “new world order” that George H.W. Bush inaugurated after the Cold War — in which peerless American power would ensure “the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle” — has given way to Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s threats toward Taiwan and assertion of sovereignty over vast swathes of international shipping lanes, and simmering risk of nuclear proliferation among rogue states.
Republican presidential candidates must navigate the paradoxes of a GOP voter base convinced that the U.S. needs to project more strength, take on fewer commitments, but uphold traditional alliances and friendships, especially with Israel. Former President Donald Trump threaded that political needle in 2016, but his iconoclastic approach has left room for rivals to appeal to more traditional GOP voters.
“The ‘peace through strength’ crowd … the shining city on a hill [crowd], that is up for grabs,” a GOP campaign data strategist said. “It won’t get you the nomination, but it might get you ten to 12%, which is a substantial number.”
Homeland security and the global migration phenomenon will be leading topics during the first debate of the GOP primary season.
Between President Joe Biden’s first full month in office in February 2021 and June 2023, federal law enforcement at the nation’s land, air, and sea borders have encountered 6,666,409 people who attempted to enter the United States unlawfully, according to public data on Customs and Border Protection’s website. Exactly 5,094,425 of the larger number were apprehended by Border Patrol agents after they crossed illegally between ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Department of Homeland Security also recorded an additional 1.5 million noncitizens who evaded arrest, or “gotaways.” Both numbers blow past any other period in the Border Patrol’s century existence and have drawn the attention of Republican voters.
Republicans have vehemently blasted the Biden administration‘s firearms policies since he took office, a subject likely to garner steam from GOP candidates preparing for their debate stage debut. Numerous GOP candidates have criticized President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party for being “gun control extremists,” as Biden touted using executive orders 21 times to implement gun reform by July of last year.
While some Republican lawmakers have embraced bipartisan gun restrictions in recent years, groups such as the National Rifle Association have continued their lobby against such steps, coinciding with now 26 states in the union that allow “constitutional carry,” or carrying without a permit, in addition to a sweeping ruling protecting Second Amendment rights at the Supreme Court in 2022.
Once an afterthought for Republicans, education is set to play a major role in the 2024 presidential election after the parental rights movement that began in the wake of the 2020 school closures pushed the issue to the forefront of Republican politics. Unlike other issues such as the Ukraine war and abortion, the Republican primary field is largely unified in what education policies the candidates wish to enact. The field’s holy grail is universal school choice, which would allow students to use taxpayer funds to pay for nonpublic education. A commitment to uphold parental rights has also emerged as a campaign trail talking point.
However, while the field is united in calling for school choice, there is a significant level of disagreement when it comes to using the federal government to enact a conservative education agenda.
A key issue that any prospective presidential administration will face is how to handle tax policy, and taxes will undoubtedly be discussed during the first debate of the GOP primary season. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was the biggest revamp of the federal tax code in years and the biggest fiscal policy change during former President Donald Trump’s time in office. Many of the provisions in the law are scheduled to sunset shortly after the 2024 elections, and some already have. Extending those tax changes will likely be one of the first legislative challenges should a Republican oust President Joe Biden next year.
The stakes are high. If Republicans overperform in 2024, winning the White House and both chambers of Congress, they could rewrite and expand those tax breaks. If Democrats amass majorities in Congress, though, they could achieve wish-list changes such as more taxes on the wealthy and a higher corporate tax rate.
Large technology companies such as Google, Amazon, X, formerly known as Twitter, and Meta maintain tight control of the digital marketplace, allowing them to control both what is said and whose viewpoints are the most prominent. While the platforms claim they are fair and will host a variety of views, the prominence of these companies in the digital marketplace remains.
Some Republicans have alleged these companies have discriminated against conservatives and that Congress needs to remove Section 230, a crucial part of communications law that protects websites from being held accountable for what users post to them. This became a larger rallying cry in 2021 after former President Donald Trump was barred from Twitter, a move that drew criticism from pro-Trump Republicans.
The debate over what to do with people who claim transgender identity has become one of the most fractious in the country and is set to be a contentious topic of debate in the 2024 electoral cycle.
However, the 2024 Republican presidential primary field appears nearly unified in its rejection of many aspects of the transgender issue, especially medical and social interventions for children and biological men competing in female sports.
By and large, the Republican Party has denounced the military’s emphasis on diversity and inclusion within its ranks under the Biden administration. GOP critics argue that focusing on the individual identities of those within the service both limits or reduces military readiness while also contributing to the recruiting struggles facing nearly every service branch.
Current DOD leaders have stood by the policies, arguing instead that diversity of viewpoint helps create a more inclusive environment while citing a number of contributing factors to the recruiting situation, including less familiarity with the military among recruiting-aged individuals, a smaller percentage of them who are eligible to service due to health and drug requirements, as well as a tough labor market.
Republicans have intensified their focus on crime and public safety this year, accusing Democrats of putting the public at risk over liberal measures that favor reform policies over prison. It’s one of the few topics that party strategists believe can sway independent voters and reenergize Republicans.
Republicans ran exhaustive ads in the suburbs and other places that saw widespread protests or violence over racial injustice during the midterm elections. The GOP won control of the House, in part, by pledging to tackle crime and battering Democrats with a “soft on crime” label.
Artificial intelligence has exploded onto the technology landscape, particularly within the past six months, with companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft leading the forefront of the industry. Generative AI apps such as ChatGPT and Midjourney have taken center stage. At the same time, the technology has attracted the attention of lawmakers worldwide who wish to get ahead of the technology and establish necessary guardrails before they can be used to spread misinformation and harm voters.
Whether former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and why has served as something of a litmus test for Republican primary candidates navigating the popularity of the former president. Those questions have become thornier, thanks to a pair of indictments facing Trump and his associates over their conduct after the 2020 race.
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Size of the federal government
One of the most famous debate blunders in recent memory concerned which federal departments a Republican candidate wanted to eliminate. Then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry was listing the three agencies he wanted to scrap — or trying to. After rattling off the departments of Commerce and Education, he struggled to find the third, which was later revealed to be the Department of Energy.
But it was probably inevitable that there would be at least one viral moment involving a Republican and the idea of scrapping government agencies. The concept is embedded within conservative small-government principles and is a perennial favorite for GOP hopefuls — though departments rarely get canned even when a Republican wins.
This cycle’s crop of GOPers is no exception, proposing to slash a host of departments ranging from the Department of Education all the way to the 161-year-old Internal Revenue Service.
