Our Republican debate poll finds Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy won (2023)

The Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight and Ipsos conducted a poll before and after last night’s debate with potential Republican primary and caucus voters, including those who watched the debate.

And they thought Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came out on top Wednesday night, with 29 percent of Republican voters who watched the debate saying he performed best. He was nearly matched by former pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy, with 26 percent saying he performed best. The findings may be surprising because DeSantis generally stayed above the fray in a raucous debate, though Ramaswamy received and delivered lots of barbs.

Here’s how debate watchers thought all the candidates performed Wednesday night.

Graphic shows the different candidates as photo cut-outs standing/walking on a running track. They are positioned in the following order: DeSantis 29%, Ramaswamy 26%, Haley 15%, Pence 7%, Christie and Scott 4%, Burgum and Hutchinson 1%. Alongside the track are three categories. None of these candidates: 13%. Did not qualify: Hurd and Suarez. Did not participate: Trump.

Eight Republican candidates took the stage Wednesday night in Milwaukee for a GOP presidential debate hosted by the Republican National Committee and Fox News. Notably, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, former president Donald Trump was not on the stage. But despite not participating, he still scores high among Republican primary and caucus voters.

Another 15 percent of debate watchers say former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley performed best in the debate, but things fell off from there for the other candidates.

Just 7 percent say former vice president Mike Pence performed best, with 4 percent each saying former New Jersey governor Chris Christie or South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. One percent each say North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum or former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson.

DeSantis was already well-known and popular among Republicans ahead of the debate, with most having a favorable opinion of him and just 6 percent having no opinion of the governor — but Ramaswamy was far less known by debate watchers, with almost 4 in 10 saying they hadn’t heard of him or had no opinion of him.

Haley showed the most improvement when it came to the share of Republicans who say they would consider voting for her. Pre-debate, 29 percent of GOP primary voters who watched the debate said they were considering voting for her, and that increased to 46 percent after the debate.

Still, other candidates have larger shares of debate watchers saying they’re considering voting for them, including DeSantis at 67 percent, which is up slightly from 62 percent pre-debate. Ramaswamy also saw a modest increase in the share saying they would consider supporting him, from 40 percent to 46 percent, though the percentage saying they would not consider voting for him ticked up by five percentage points as well. Notably, debate watchers are slightly less likely to say they will consider supporting Trump after the debate (61 percent now, 66 percent before).

Other candidates saw small shifts in potential support among Republican debate watchers, including Scott, Christie and Hutchinson. Former Texas congressman Will Hurd and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who did not qualify for the debate, didn’t shift nor did Pence who did participate. Burgum did see a seven-point increase in debate watchers saying they are considering voting for him (from 5 percent to 12 percent), but the share who are not considering him also grew from 66 percent to 76 percent.

Wednesday’s debate was a chance for candidates to introduce themselves to their voters and hopefully make themselves more well-liked. Here’s how things shifted.

Burgum saw a 27-percentage-point increase in the share saying they had a favorable view of him, but his unfavorable ratings increased by a similar 25 points. Far fewer debate watchers offered no opinion.

Haley boosted her favorability rating by 14 points, putting her in clear positive territory. Sixty-five percent hold a favorable opinion of her, and her unfavorable ratings barely budged. Christie and Hutchinson also enjoyed increases in their popularity, but each just have about a third saying they have a favorable opinion of them. Meanwhile, Hutchinson’s unfavorable ratings doubled, while Christie’s 60 percent unfavorable rating changed little from before the debate.

Ramaswamy enjoyed a 10-point increase in the share of GOP debate watchers who have a favorable opinion of him, bringing him to 60 percent, but he saw an even larger increase in the share who say they have an unfavorable opinion of him, up 19 points to 32 percent.

DeSantis, meanwhile, did not see a significant shift in his favorable ratings post-debate.