Holding a 2024 presidential debate at the Reagan Library almost guarantees paeans to the late president. But the Republican Party has moved a long way from Ronald Reagan.
This surely wasn’t the plan, but by placing their second candidate debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Republican officials put a spotlight on how far their party has moved from positions that made the 40th president a conservative icon.
That’s been clear throughout the campaign as the candidates have sparred over how far to go to impose national bans on abortion, a goal sought by many Republican primary voters but opposed by a majority of Americans.On multiple other issues, however — foreign policy, Social Security and Medicare, trade and immigration — the party of Donald Trump has sharply shifted away from that of Reagan.
In the current field of major candidates — the seven onstage Wednesday night and Trump, the consistent front-runner in polls who has so far declined to join 2024 debates — the clearest divide is between those who embrace that shift away from Reagan’s outlook and those who resist it. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have both tried to position themselves as younger versions of Trump. South Carolina‘s Sen. Tim Scott has mostly avoided drawing sharp contrasts with his rivals, and the seventh candidate onstage, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, remains largely unknown to most voters.“A lot of this is less about ideology than it is about temperament and approach,” said GOP strategist Kevin Spillane, a strong Trump critic, in an interview before the debate.
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