Republican Iowa debate: Where do Haley and DeSantis stand on key voter issues?

The Republican rivals disagree on abortion, climate change and Ukraine but stand united on the Israel-Hamas conflict and granting clemency to Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis will go head-to-head on the debate stage in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday night, giving both a final chance in the spotlight ahead of the state’s caucuses on Monday.

Front-runner Donald Trump has once again refused to take part in proceedings, opting for a Fox News town hall instead.

Meanwhile Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson all failed to qualify for the CNN broadcast from Drake University, leaving the stage clear for Ms Haley and Mr DeSantis to try to distinguish themselves.

Both the former US ambassador to the United Nations and the current Florida governor will be seeking to present themselves as the best alternative to Mr Trump and each will be hoping to lay a knockout blow on the other.

After the initial excitement about the prospect of Mr DeSantis running, his campaign has so far proved something of a disappointment, with the candidate being regarded as an oddly awkward presence and failing to carve out significant support from conservative voters – leaving him languishing in the polls.

Ms Haley, by contrast, has risen up the ranks in the polls, but has also shown herself more than capable of a gaffe – notably in her failure to cite slavery as a primary cause of the American Civil War.

Here’s a look at where the duo stand on some of the most important voter issues of the moment.

Abortion

Nikki Haley

The ex-South Carolina governor has taken a relatively middle-of-the-road stance on abortion by calling for consensus on the issue.

She has described herself as “unapologetically pro-life” but maintained that abortion is “a very personal issue”.

Rather than tackle a federal ban, Ms Haley has said Congress should find common ground among people who are pro-choice and anti-abortion.

“Can’t we all agree that we should ban late-term abortions?” she has said.

“Can’t we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can’t we all agree that doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortion shouldn’t have to perform them? Can’t we all agree that contraception should be available? And can’t we all agree that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion?”

An abortion activist demonstrating outside the US Supreme Court (Reuters)

During the earlier debates, Ms Haley scolded her opponents Mike Pence and Tim Scott for not being honest with Americans about the likelihood of a national ban when talking about the subject.

“When it comes to a federal ban, let’s be honest with the American people and say it will take 60 Senate votes,” she said.

Ron DeSantis

The Florida governor, by contrast, plainly opposes abortion.

Earlier this year, he told Megyn Kelly he is “proud to be pro-life” though he believes in exceptions in the cases of rape, incest or to save a woman’s life.

Mr DeSantis has reflected these views through Florida legislation by firstly signing a 15-week abortion ban into law, before quietly signing an even more restrictive six-week ban.

Mr DeSantis said he was “proud” to sign the six-week ban when asked about it during the first debate.

However, it is unclear if Mr DeSantis would support a federal abortion ban. When asked if he would during an earlier debate, he swerved around a direct answer by saying he would “stand on the side of life”.

Mr DeSantis has previously criticised the federal government for protecting the right to abortion calling it an “abuse of power”.

He has also noted that each state has different preferences for abortion limitations.

Climate change

Nikki Haley

The former state governor has acknowledged climate change is real but downplayed America’s responsibility and blamed China – despite the US being the second largest polluter and having caused the largest share of emissions over the past 200 years.

Wildfires devastating the Hawaiian island of Maui last year (AP)

“If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman,” she said at the first Republican debate in Wisconsin, quoting former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

“Climate change is real. Yes, it is. If you want to change the environment, we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions.”

Ron DeSantis

Mr DeSantis has obfuscated on the issue and criticised President Joe Biden’s response to last year’s Maui wildfires.

“First of all, one of the reasons our country has declined is because of the way the corporate media treats Republicans versus Democrats,” he said when asked about the issue in Wisconsin.

“Biden was on the beach while those people were suffering. He was asked about it and said no comment. Are you kidding me? As someone who has handled disasters in Florida, you’ve gotta be activated. You’ve gotta be there. You’ve gotta be present. You’ve gotta be helping people who are doing this.”

The governor has been seen as attempting to walk the fine line between the leader of a state being battered by more intense hurricanes and sea-level rise and an “anti-woke,” anti-science agenda.

That’s still preferable to Mr Ramaswamy, however, who said flat-out at the same event that climate change was “a hoax” – a provocation Mr Trump has opted for in the past.

The Israel-Hamas conflict

Nikki Haley

The former diplomat is supportive of Israel but believes the US should only play a minor role in the conflict arising from the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.

“I don’t think America needs to be telling Israel what to do,” Ms Haley told The Carolina News and Record.

“Let Israel do what Israel needs to do. Don’t talk to them about a ceasefire. Don’t talk to them about restraint. Don’t talk to them about humanitarian aid.”

The former ambassador has instead encouraged Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “finish” Hamas.

She has also said the US should not take people from Gaza as refugees but expressed some sympathy for innocent civilians by acknowledging that many Palestinians “want to be free” of Hamas.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken meets with Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz (AFP/Getty)

“America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists,” she told CNN.

However, Ms Haley also circulated misinformation about the attack early on, by falsely claiming the US’s prisoner exchange deal with Iran had helped fund Hamas’ attack on Israel.

Ron DeSantis

The Florida governor has taken a pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian approach.

Mr DeSantis has said he believes that the US should provide support to Israel but does not believe US service members should be on the ground.

“As commander-in-chief, I am not going to put our troops in harm’s way unless you are willing to defend them with everyone you have,” Mr DeSantis said during an earlier debate. “Biden has ‘em out there. They are sitting ducks.”

However, he did boast about planes, contracted by Florida, that brought “hospital supplies, drones, body armour and helmets” to first responders in Israel.

An Israeli diplomat contradicted that statement, however, saying the governor’s office sent medical supplies that were requested by the health ministry and was contacted to ensure a flight carrying rifle parts could leave from Miami.

Mr DeSantis has also condemned antisemitism in the US and around the world in the wake of the attacks and said the US should not accept innocent civilians from Gaza as refugees.

He ordered two Florida universities to deactivate their chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and also baselessly claimed that Gaza citizens “are all antisemitic”.

The Ukraine war

Nikki Haley

The former South Carolina governor believes it is in the US’s best interest to support Ukraine.

“A win for Ukraine is a win for all of us because tyrants tell us exactly what they’re going to do,” she previously told CNN.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky (AP)

Ms Haley has said that a Ukrainian victory would send a broader message to warn China about attacking Taiwan, that it would deter Iran from building nuclear weapons and pressure North Korea to move away from ballistic missile testing.

She has been critical of Mr Biden’s “slow and weak” reaction to helping the country, however.

Ron DeSantis

The Floridian takes the exact opposite stance, stating that he does not believe the US should be involved in Ukraine while also walking back his earlier comments dismissing the war as an insignificant “territorial dispute” in far away Europe.

In March 2023, Mr DeSantis dismissed Russia’s illegal invasion of its western neighbour state and said it was not in the US’s national interests to get involved. He faced backlash for diminishing the severity of the war and later clarified that he was only referring to the fighting in the Donbas and Crimea when he called it a dispute.

Since then, Mr DeSantis has steered away from making too many comments on the war.

In April, he said he supported a ceasefire, saying it would be “in everybody’s interest”.

He told the Japanese English-language weekly Nikkei Asia: “You don’t want to end up in like a [Battle of] Verdun situation, where you just have mass casualties, mass expense and end up with a stalemate.”

During the debates, he has made it clear he would not support sending US troops to Ukraine.

Donald Trump

Nikki Haley

As South Carolina governor in 2016, Ms Haley said she was appalled by then-candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the US – a plan he duly put in place as president, prompting massive protests at airports.

Ms Haley, whose parents are Indian immigrants, said at the time that Mr Trump’s promise was “absolutely un-American,” adding that it was just one of many “unacceptable” things he had said and done.

But, she still joined the Trump administration as UN ambassador and defended the policy when Mr Trump put in place a 90-day ban on travellers and refugees from coming to the US from Muslim-majority countries.

She’s now trying to attract GOP voters by emphasising the drama of those years.

“We cannot have four years of chaos, vendettas and drama,” she has told voters, according to The New York Times. “America needs a captain who will steady the ship, not capsize it.”

Donald Trump (AP)

She also bashed Mr Trump by saying that as president, she would not praise dictators and that she would “have the backs of our allies”.

Campaigning in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, recently, Ms Haley spoke of her time as one of America’s top diplomats.

“If he was doing something wrong, I showed up in his office or I picked up the phone and said you cannot do this,” she said.

Ron DeSantis

During a recent press conference at a Florida charter school, Mr DeSantis slammed Mr Trump for skipping the GOP primary debates.

“If you’re doing so well, you should want to go up there and make your case, and I think voters deserve to hear from candidates as to why they should be the nominee,” he said, according to WFLA.

Mr DeSantis also pushed back against Mr Trump after the former president blamed his fellow Florida man when the College Football Playoff committee excluded Florida State University from the playoffs.

Similarly, the governor went after his former ally for siding with Disney in his ongoing feud with the entertainment giant over disagreements on social issues.

“If you’re going to be a keyboard warrior, get out of your dungeon, get off the keyboard, stand on the debate stage, and let’s go,” Mr DeSantis said. “Let’s do it. I don’t think he will do it because I don’t think he can stand there for two hours against me and come out on top.”

On a recent appearance on NBC’s Meet The Press, Mr DeSantis also bashed Mr Trump for his failure to repeal and replace Obamacare.

“This is part of a pattern where he’s running on things that he didn’t do,” the governor said, citing the border wall among other things.

“Here’s what I will do. What I think they’re going to need to do is have a plan that will supersede Obamacare that will lower prices for people so that they can afford health care while also making sure that people with pre-existing conditions are protected.”

Yet, both candidates began the New Year by saying they would grant Mr Trump clemency from prosecution if elected president, arguing it was in the nation’s interest to do so. The comments drew widespread criticism, including from Mr Christie.