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GOP Primary 2024 Debate | Munk Debates

March 7, 2023

GOP Primary 2024 Debate

Be it resolved, Ron DeSantis, not Donald Trump, will be the GOP nominee in 2024.

Guests
Elaine Kamarck
Sarah Longwell

About this episode

With Nikki Haley entering the fray, The GOP primary contest has officially begun. Many more candidates are expected to announce here in the coming weeks. But of all the potential challengers, one has emerged as the odds on favorite to defeat the Republican standard bearer Donald Trump. Current Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has proven himself a formidable political operator, many in the party elite think that the future of the party belongs in his capable hands. He is polling very well, he has the support of the establishment, is a fundraising juggernaut, and manages to channel the core of Trumpism in a more moderate and appealing package. But other political strategists and party faithfuls believe that you underestimate Donald Trump at your own peril. His influencer over rank and file GOP voters is unmatched, and he proved himself to be a force during the 2016 primary. In short, DeSantis may be the future, but Donald Trump is the present.

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Guests

Elaine Kamarck

“A shtick that seemed fresh and exciting and wonderful in 2016 is likely to not be quite as interesting after a while, when it's the same old thing and when, instead of it being fresh and exciting, it seems a little bit dated and a little bit irritating.”

Elaine Kamarck

“A shtick that seemed fresh and exciting and wonderful in 2016 is likely to not be quite as interesting after a while, when it's the same old thing and when, instead of it being fresh and exciting, it seems a little bit dated and a little bit irritating.”

Elaine C. Kamarck is a Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies program as well as the Director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. She is an expert on American electoral politics and government innovation and reform in the United States, OECD nations, and developing countries. She focuses her research on the presidential nomination system and American politics and has worked in many American presidential campaigns. 

Kamarck is the author of Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates and Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again. She is also the author of How Change Happens—or Doesn’t: The Politics of US Public Policy and The End of Government-As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work.
 

Sarah Longwell

“There's a lot of reasons to think that Ron DeSantis could be ascendent and Donald Trump could be yesterday's news, but I think he holds enough of a real chance that nobody should underestimate him and everybody should treat it with the severity and the concern that it deserves.”

Sarah Longwell

“There's a lot of reasons to think that Ron DeSantis could be ascendent and Donald Trump could be yesterday's news, but I think he holds enough of a real chance that nobody should underestimate him and everybody should treat it with the severity and the concern that it deserves.”

Sarah Longwell is a Republican political strategist and publisher of the neoconservative news and opinion website The Bulwark. She is the founder of Republican Voters Against Trump (now the Republican Accountability Project), which spent millions of dollars to defeat President Trump in 2020.

Longwell is a prominent voice in the Never Trump movement. She was instrumental in founding Defending Democracy Together, an umbrella organization for Republican Voters Against Trump, Republicans for the Rule of Law, and other anti-Trump projects. Longwell advocated for the impeachment and removal of President Trump in 2019, and for his impeachment and conviction in 2021.

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