Former president Donald Trump will not participate in the debate. His campaign has worked to overpower Gov. Ron DeSantis in their shared home state of Florida and publicly said it wants to score blowout wins in early primary states to seal the nomination.
Residents in six north-central Florida communities cast votes for council members and ballot questions.
Florida has long been influential in national politics — never more so than in 2000 when there were five weeks of recounts and court challenges before George W. Bush carried the state and won the presidency, by 537 votes.
Gov. Reynolds will break with long-standing Iowa tradition to endorse DeSantis. Iowa’s governor typically stays neutral before the caucuses that kick off the Republicans’ nomination calendar in January.
The RNC has scheduled a fourth debate for Dec. 6 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The third takes place this Wednesday in Miami.
The military aid comes as DeSantis and other GOP presidential contenders are expected to attend the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual gathering of donors in Las Vegas.
Trump’s campaign says he will hold a rally the evening of Nov. 8th at a stadium in Hialeah, Florida, about a half-hour drive from the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, where his rivals will debate,
Calling Trump MIA, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation we have now.”
Seven GOP candidates fight for momentum on a stage that will not feature the race’s front-runner. Former President Donald Trump says he’s so far ahead that it would only help his competitors if he participated.
The two politicians will appear in a 90-minute debate on Nov. 30 in Georgia.