On Wednesday, August 23, the GOP's presidential hopefuls will go head to head in the first debate of the 2024 primary. The debate will be broadcast on Fox News at 21:00 EDT, and the network's hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will serve as moderators.

Eight Republicans vying to become the party's next presidential candidate will take to the stage: Florida governor Ron DeSantis; Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence; former New Jersey governor Chris Christie; former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson; South Carolina senator Tim Scott; former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum; American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, who will be the only woman taking part in the debate.

Trump not attending

Donald Trump, the GOP's front-runner in the contest, will be notably absent from the event. He said in a Truth Social post that his 62 percent lead in a recent CBS poll simply rendered his attendance unnecessary, but I don't know — I think the fact he's due to surrender to an Atlanta jail the next day, following a criminal indictment over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, might have something to do with it.

In a major snub to both Fox News and the Republican National Committee (RNC), Trump is not only skipping the first debate, but has instead recorded an online interview with ex-Fox host Tucker Carlson that's expected to air the same night.

Inelegible candidates cry 'corruption'

Trump isn't the only GOP candidate that won't be at the debate, though. To qualify for a place on the stage, hopefuls must meet the RNC's criteria of 40,000 campaign donors, including at least 200 donors from 20 states, as well as backing from one percent of Republican voters in three national polls, or in two national polls and two polls in the early primary states — and a handful of GOP-ers apparently didn't make the cut.

They didn't take the news sitting down though, oh no. Perry Johnson, the American businessman who was disqualified from Michigan's gubernatorial race last year over fraudulent ballot signatures, took to Twitter to accuse the RNC's debate process of being "corrupted, plain and simple."

The debate process has been corrupted, plain and simple. Our campaign hit every metric put forward by the RNC and we have qualified for the debate. We’ll be in Milwaukee Wednesday and will have more to say tomorrow.

— Perry Johnson (@PJQualityGuru) August 22, 2023

He and right-wing talk show host Larry Elder — who, like Johnson, claims he met the RNC's donor and polling threshold, and who, like Johnson, has also previously made a failed bid for governor (California, back in 2021) — have since said they plan to sue the committee.

The big issues

As each candidate presents their policy agendas, they'll make clear where they stand on what will likely be major topics of the debate: immigration, abortion, the economy, LGBTQ+ issues and the war in Ukraine.

From evangelical Christian Mike Pence's staunchly anti-abortion stance to Chris Christie's support for continued US aid to Ukraine, the Republican party's presidential hopefuls disagree on more than you might think. Check out a handy explainer of each candidate's stance on key voter issues here.

The primary debate usually provides a platform for candidates to swap jibes and throw punches, but with the party's front-runner missing and Ron DeSantis reportedly preparing to be the night's stand-in punching bag, expect this year's first primary debate to get messier than you perhaps anticipated. We can guarantee, at least, that it won't be boring.

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