Republican Party of Otero County Festive Watching Republican Debate

The Republican Party of Otero County met for a public gathering Wednesday night in the banquet room of Johnny Carino’s to eat, drink and engage in political theater. A group of committed Republicans showed up for a game of Debate Bingo and camaraderie as the sipped wine, beers and soda, ate great meals and watch the first debate of the 2024 presidential campaign season.

The Republicans of Otero County like hundreds of local party chapters around the nation participated in Debate watch parties to get a better understanding of who each Republican presidential candidate was and what their belief systems are.

The Republican frontrunner Donald Trump did not compete in the primary election debate. Many Trump supporters said they felt if Trump had been a participant “he would have creamed his opponents with his zingers.” Without Trump the debate was less entertaining and less rambunctious however it “served its purpose” according to one of the local viewers.

The event hosted by RPOC was to watch the first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary viewing it on the multiple screens as itwas held in Milwaukee, Wednesday night.

Eight candidates qualified for a spot on the stage: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Participants of the local viewing party heard a lot tonight about what ails America: crime, climate change, inflation, bureaucracy with some candidates more persuasive than others. The candidates presented various visions for combating those issues again, some more persuasive than others! But as is always the case, a lot of what we saw in these debates was just theater.

Christie the better debater, repeatedly mixed it up with other candidates tonight. He was critical of Trump, calling the front-runner's behavior "unbecoming" and making him unfit to be president. Christie has a track record of strong debates. But Christie's criticism of Trump and his high unfavorable ratings among Republicans make his performance unlikely to cause a Christie boom to frontrunner in this race.

For Tom Scott, tonight was an opportunity to capitalize on his potential as a candidate who is well-liked by Republicans familiar with him but who is not that well-known. He tried to stay above the fray on most issues, which in theory made sense if he wanted to look like a consensus-style candidate who most Republicans could like. However, that also led to him getting less airtime, as the candidates who engaged each other and freely interrupted were more likely to be on camera. This debate didn’t hurt Scott, but it didn’t help him much either.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has been in the race longer than anyone else on the stage but hasn't had a breakout moment. She was clearly aiming to change that with tonights performance and she did have one of the most memorable back-and-forths of the night when she took Ramaswamy to task over his lack of foreign policy experience. She came out swinging early not just against Biden but against Republicans in Congress, and she was one of just a handful of contenders to make an electability argument against Trump by pointing out his low favorability ratings. But for a candidate who is polling at 3.4 percent nationwide, it's not obvious that was enough and locals in Alamogordo were mixed on her behalf.

Florida Governor DeSantis did well but he came across several times like he was yelling, DeSantis came across as confident and didn’t have any of the awkward moments that have gotten him bad attention on the campaign trail. In terms of substance, he turned the conversation toward issue areas that play to his strengths, like COVID-19, wokeness in education and natural disaster leadership. That said, local Republicans already had fairly high expectations for DeSantis in this debate, so a good performance probably had no impact on his standing.

Former President Donald Trump’s counter-programming to Wednesday’s primary debate came in the form of an rambling and odd interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as he sought to seize attention from his lower-polling opponents via a Twitter (X) hosted performance.

Carlson’s questions drifted away from the typical Republican primary issues completely, as he asked Trump how he thought Jeffrey Epstein, the financier accused of sex crimes, died. The interview also covered insults against the journalist Chris Wallace, the sale of the Panama Canal, and Trump’s deregulation of how much water can flow through showerheads. The topics and dialogue was odd for a presidential hopeful.

Trump reiterated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and jabbed at Republican opponents Ron DeSantis, Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie as well as President Joe Biden.

“Do I sit there for an hour or two hours or whatever it’s going to be and get harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president? Should I be doing that?” Trump said of the Fox debate. “The network isn’t particularly friendly to me.”

Thus, the Republican Party of Otero County rallied its supporters and its base with a gathering on Wednesday night that most everyone enjoyed. 

Did the debate change any minds or opinions? Probably not.

Top of mind for most local Republicans is Trumps pending arrest in Atlanta on Thursday and their perception of Biden’s abuse of power.

The Republican Party of Otero County is also keenly focused on the upcoming municipal elections which was the other side topic at this evening’s festivities.

AlamogordoTownNews.com and KALHRadio.org reached to the local Democratic Party for comment on Wednesday’s Debate. As is typical we received no comment and no response.

The state Democratic Party of New Mexico had released the following statement

“ Even though Donald Trump will not participate in the GOP debate as he has more pressing matters to attend to, the rest of the field has eagerly embraced his radical MAGA brand and worldview. No matter how much they hide from their extreme anti-choice and far-right records, these Republicans stood by as abortion rights and our democracy were under attack. Every Republican running for president offers nothing other than the same failed MAGA social and economic agenda that left New Mexican working families behind during Trump’s term.”

“While the GOP presidential candidates will only continue to race further to the right as the primary approaches, the Biden-Harris Administration is busy putting New Mexicans to work and fighting to protect our freedoms. No matter how much these Republicans try to spin the facts, they cannot change that President Biden is creating jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, protecting affordable health care access, and creating a surge in American manufacturing.”

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