2 winners and 3 losers from the first Republican debate

Donald Trump’s absence from the debate stage Wednesday night ultimately meant little: This is still the former president’s nomination to lose, and despite a few moments of conflict and clarity among the eight Republican presidential hopefuls onstage, no candidate emerged as a clear alternative.

Still, without the former president, the eight contenders gathered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were able to have a lively discussion on a range of issues: abortion bans, the reality of climate change, urban crime, K-12 education, immigration, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the rise of China. The differences between the candidates were clear, their varied experiences were on full display, and at certain points, you could see a flash of an old kind of pre-Trump Republican Party debate, deliberating over government spending, illegal immigration, and foreign policy.

But no matter how lively the conversation was, no one on the stage will likely be the next president. Yet once you get over that fact, Wednesday night’s debate has some lessons about the state of the race and the Republican Party.

Here are two winners and three losers from the first Republican presidential debate.

Winner: Donald Trump

It wasn’t until former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley criticized the nearly $8 trillion of federal spending authorized during the Trump presidency that any of the eight candidates criticized the primary’s frontrunner — and that wasn’t until about 15 minutes into the debate.

The former president emerged from Wednesday night’s debate as the clear winner, even though he wasn’t there. He suffered no major surprise blows from the candidates onstage, was frequently defended by one of the loudest voices in the room (Vivek Ramaswamy), and after a question from moderators Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier, six of the eight candidates pledged to support him even if he is convicted of a crime.

[Related: Trump’s Tucker Carlson interview was a taste of the chaos to come]

The audience also showed this loyalty. When former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or Haley or former Vice President Mike Pence would say something critical of Trump, they were met with boos. By the end of the night, it did not seem as though any candidate could be a realistic alternative to Trump…