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Knives Out for Vivek!
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in the media spin room after the first debate of the GOP primary season. (All photos by Mustafa Hussain for The Free Press)
DeSantis flounders. Nikki Haley claps back. And the 38-year-old political newbie surges. But does Ramaswamy actually have a shot? A report from the GOP debate.
By Olivia Reingold
08.24.23 — U.S. Politics
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MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Heading into Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate, 55 percent of Republican voters were backing Donald Trump, who didn’t even bother to show up. So why did millions of viewers tune in? 

Simple. To find out if any of the other eight Republicans who made it onto the debate stage has a chance of unseating him.

One way to judge the answ…

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Olivia Reingold
Olivia Reingold is a staff writer at The Free Press. She co-created and executive produced Matthew Yglesias’s podcast, Bad Takes. She got her start in public radio, regularly appearing on NPR for her reporting on indigenous communities in Montana. She previously produced podcasts at Politico, where she shaped conversations with world leaders like Jens Stoltenberg.
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